Technology, for the most part, is not necessarily a partisan issue. There isn’t a clear-cut stance on either side as to how to feel about net neutrality, cyber security or even artificial intelligence. Since technology issues are such a relatively new concept for the political parties, it’s not easy to see which way candidates are leaning on different tech issues. But technology issues are important to a large portion of the population.
Luckily, InformationWeek put together a quick rundown of where some of the leading candidates stand on several tech issues facing Americans today.
Hillary Clinton
Hillary is on the side of tech when it comes to fighting terrorism. She has asked Silicon Valley to help the government disrupt ISIS. She asks popular social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube that the terrorist organization utilizes in order to recruit to deny online space for the group. While she concedes that this may seem like a breach of freedom of speech, she contends that shutting off the communication of ISIS is a pertinent step in fighting them.
Hillary also has asked for the tech community to help decode encrypted communications from terrorist groups. It’s clear that Hillary believes that one of the fronts to fight terrorism is in the cyber space.
Bernie Sanders
Sanders is a proponent of privacy and digital rights, and was a co-sponsor of the Online Competition and Consumer Act of 2014, which would prohibit service providers from giving preferential treatment. Sanders believes net neutrality is “a fundamental free speech issue that could give corporations even more control over our access to information.”
When it comes to cyber security, Sanders believes that attacks are the greatest threat to national security and believes clear, tough legislation needs to be enacted. However, he believes that monitoring all information is a move toward an Orwellian society, and voted against the Patriot Act. He believes that there needs to be a balance between cyber security and protecting the rights and data of citizens.
Jeb Bush
Jeb Bush is a believer in the importance of cyber security. He believes that a critical element of national defense and economic well-being lies in cyber security, and wishes to increase US intelligence and law enforcement cyber security capabilities while strengthening international cooperation, creating private-public partnerships and removing barriers to innovation in the industry. He wants to utilize immigration by bringing in and retaining highly skilled immigrants in these technologies.
Bush is also a supporter of online learning, and believes that technology has fundamentally changed the way we learn. He supports investing in research and supporting online, blended and competency-based learning models.
Ben Carson
Ben Carson feels strongly enough about cyber security that he wants to establish a new National Cyber Security Administration (NCSA) to consolidate and unify government initiatives and offices. This administration would include educational initiatives, researching best practices and vulnerabilities, certifying security products, seeking out botnets, preparing all agencies for attacks, coordinating research and development, incentivizing cooperation between private industry and law enforcement, increasing reliability and use of authentication tools and would be a central resource for digital privacy and civil liberty issues.
Ted Cruz
Ted Cruz has yet to specifically address technological issues, but has mentioned that he is nor in favor of net neutrality. He has called it “Obamacare for the Internet” and believes the FCC wishes to regulate the Internet and turn it into a public utility.
John Kasich
John Kasich mentions on his site that, “We must defend against cyber attacks on our government and businesses, as well as counter the online activities of jihadis and other opponents. We must work with our allies to identify sources of attack and develop a coordinated response to anyone that attacks the resources of our government and the private sector.”
Marco Rubio
Marco Rubia has stated that he will repeal net neutrality if he becomes president, which he believes will hamper innovation and raise costs for Internet users. He will also fight proposals from foreign governments to gut current multi-stakeholder governance of the Internet, he will encourage information sharing between the government and private sector, will harshly respond to cyberattacks, reallocate government-owned wireless spectrum for commercial use, make the Internet Tax Freedom Act permanent, and oppose the Maketplace Fairness Act.
Donald Trump
Trump is against net neutrality, and believes that the NSA should be given leeway as long as they don’t violate the Fourth Amendment. He asserts that cyber security is a constant battle but that the US has done a fairly good job on it. And he worries that artificial intelligence creators should consider the ethical and moral consequences of AI.
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