Comprehensive Regulation of Digital Platforms
Over the last twenty years, a handful of Big Tech companies have transformed our lives – without any effective oversight or accountability to the American people. They have damaged our children’s mental and physical health, reduced the competitiveness of our economic markets, and undermined our national security. Everywhere Michael goes in Colorado, he hears from kids, parents, teachers, nurses, and public officials about the harms these platforms have had on their communities, and the need for federal action.
Michael believes there is no reason that the biggest tech companies on Earth should face less regulation than Colorado’s small businesses. That’s why he introduced the Digital Platform Commission Act, the first legislation in Congress to create an expert federal agency to provide comprehensive regulation of digital platforms to protect consumers, promote competition, and defend the public interest.
Michael’s bill follows a long history of Congress establishing expert, sector-specific federal commissions to oversee complex sectors of the economy – from the creation of the Food and Drug Administration in 1906 to the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.
Michael is particularly concerned with the role these platforms play in eroding our democracy. He has pushed for stronger standards to stop the spread of deceptive content online and has called on major technology companies to identify and label AI-generated content. Michael was one of the first senators to call on the CEOs of Apple and Alphabet to remove TikTok from their app stores, given its unacceptable risk to U.S. national security. In 2024, Congress passed legislation to remove TikTok from U.S. app stores unless it divested from its parent company. As a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and the Senate Committee on Rules & Administration, he has repeatedly warned Big Tech companies of their platforms’ dangers to American elections and foreign interference.