Author: Scott Thurm / Source: WIRED
US Representative Ro Khanna (D-California) represents much of Silicon Valley, but he’s not just a cheerleader for the hometown industry. He supports tougher antitrust review of tech mergers, for one thing. Khanna is also trying to draft an “Internet Bill of Rights,” principles that he hopes can later form the basis of legislation. On his list: the right to know what data tech companies have about you; the right to limit the use of your data; the right to consent when the data is transferred; and the right to move your data.
“You really don’t have a clear sense of what’s happening to your data,” Khanna told WIRED writers and editors Monday. “If you want to leave Facebook, you should be able to transfer your social graph.”
Khanna has few illusions that such a measure will become law anytime soon. He’s a first-term representative from the minority party in a deeply divided and dysfunctional Congress. He says even his fellow Democrats do not agree on how to deal with big internet firms. “We are so far from legislation,” he says. Some highlights from the interview:
Another obstacle: His colleagues on Capitol Hill. Khanna says Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s appearances at two hearings in early April exposed how little many lawmakers understand about technology. In their questions, members seemed not to know how Facebook collects data, or how it makes money. Several asked Zuckerberg for ideas about how to regulate Facebook. Even congressional staffs don’t have as much expertise as they should, Khanna says, leading to over-reliance on the tech industry itself for information, and a reluctance to regulate the industry.
“One of the things that perplexed me most about the hearings was how many of the congresspeople or senators turned to Zuckerberg and said, ‘Tell us what we should do,’” Khanna says. “If you had the pharmaceutical industry up there or banks up there, you wouldn’t have members of Congress saying, ‘Please tell us how we should regulate you.’”
The Facebook hearings captivated Washington, as lawmakers rebuked Zuckerberg. But Khanna, who has travelled with colleagues…
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