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Source: Reuters
FILE PHOTO: Democratic U.S. presidential nominee Joe Biden at a
campaign canvas kickoff in Bloomfield Hills
FILE PHOTO: U.S. President-elect Joe Biden speaks after meeting
with governors in Wilmington, Delaware
Bruce Reed, a former Biden chief of staff who is expected to
take a major role in the new administration, helped negotiate
with the tech industry and legislators on behalf of backers of a
ballot initiative that led to the 2018 California Consumer
Privacy Act. Privacy advocates see that law as a possible model
for a national law.
Reed also co-authored a chapter in a book published last month
denouncing the federal law known as Section 230, which makes it
impossible to sue internet companies over the content of user
postings. Both Republicans and Democrats have called for
reforming or abolishing 230, which critics say has allowed abuse
to flourish on social media.
Reed, a veteran political operative, was chief of staff for
Biden from 2011 to 2013 when Biden was U.S. vice president. In
that role he succeeded Ron Klain, who was recently named
incoming White House chief of staff. Reed then served as
president of the Broad Foundation, a major Los Angeles
philanthropic organization, and then as an adviser to Laurene
Powell Jobs’ Emerson Collective in Palo Alto, California.
The Biden campaign identified Reed as its top person on tech
policy but declined to make him available for an interview.
CALIFORNIA PRIVACY
Reed, 60, became involved in the California privacy campaign in
his capacity as a strategist for Common Sense Media, a nonprofit
set up by Stanford University lecturer James Steyer to advise
parents and companies on healthy content for children.
Tech companies initially lined up in staunch opposition to the
ballot initiative that set the stage for the law, which gives
consumers the right to learn what information about them is
being given to which companies and to have that information
deleted.
But Reed helped peel Apple Inc away from the pack by drafting
language it could live with, according to Alastair Mactaggart,
the real estate developer who masterminded the ballot
initiative.
"He understands that there needs to be good regulation,"
Mactaggart said. “He wants to get something done. He wasn’t an
ideologue who would take his toys and go home if it wasn’t
perfect.”
With the initiative then a more credible threat, the rest of the
industry was willing to come to the table as California State
Senate Majority Leader Bob Hertzberg drafted a last-minute bill
that kept most of the initiative’s power but offered big tech
companies a chance to soften it in following years. Reed was the
core of the group that worked on that bill, Hertzberg told
Reuters.
"This initiative would not have happened without Bruce, there’s
no question. He took it seriously when everyone else didn’t,"
Hertzberg said.
Reed's position on 230 could prove more controversial. In a book
published last month, "Which Side of History? How Technology Is
Reshaping Democracy and Our Lives," Steyer and Reed co-authored
a chapter that called 230 an enemy of children. Though 230 had
allowed tech freedom to flourish, they wrote that it has now
gone against the desires of its backers by giving companies a
financial incentive to encourage hate and abuse.
"If they sell ads that run alongside harmful content, they
should be considered complicit in the harm," Steyer and Reed
wrote. "If their algorithms promote harmful content, they should
be held accountable for helping redress the harm. In the long
run, the only real way to moderate content is to moderate the
business model."
(Reporting by Joseph Menn in San Francisco; Editing by Jonathan
Weber and Matthew Lewis)
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