Cybersecurity & Tech Democracy & Elections

Tech Tank: Where was tech policy in the presidential race before Biden dropped out?

Nicol Turner Lee, Steven Overly
Monday, July 22, 2024, 9:00 AM

Published by The Lawfare Institute
in Cooperation With
Brookings

For several years now, leaders in Washington have been battling it out to determine how our emerging world should be regulated. Woven into the fabric of the American political system are conversations about artificial intelligence, the U.S. and China’s competition surrounding technological advancement, and how technology is changing our democracy.  

In a presidential election year, it is important to consider where these conversations fit in. Technology has woven itself deeply into the fabric of campaigns, acting as a main method of communication between candidates and the electorate. It is an essential element of our everyday lives, yet, with all the partisan talk on both sides about who the candidates are and what their legacies are, there is little discourse about how candidates plan to do to aid tech regulation. Tech is infiltrating democratic processes, like voting. It is upending traditional ways in which consumers transact, and it is likely to model–based on who wins–the values, and resentments harbored by each candidate.  

This week on the TechTank Podcast, co-host Dr. Nicol Turner Lee is joined by Steven Overly, the host of POLITICO Tech, and Darrell West, TechTank Podcast co-host and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. Together, they discuss where tech and tech policies are in the upcoming election and understand what hotbed issues resonate with candidates and voters.  

Listen to the episode and subscribe to the TechTank Podcast on AppleSpotify, or Acast.


Dr. Nicol Turner Lee is a senior fellow in Governance Studies, the director of the Center for Technology Innovation, and serves as Co-Editor-In-Chief of TechTank. Dr. Turner Lee researches public policy designed to enable equitable access to technology across the U.S. and to harness its power to create change in communities across the world. Her work also explores global and domestic broadband deployment and internet governance issues. She is an expert on the intersection of race, wealth, and technology within the context of civic engagement, criminal justice, and economic development.
Steven Overly is a tech policy reporter at Politico.

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