---
title: "White House’s Principles on Tech Platforms Exaggerate Risks and Overlook Unintended Consequences, Says ITIF"
summary: |-
  If implemented, the tech platform principles announced today would do more harm than good. The antitrust bills that the White House supports would limit innovation and harm consumers.
date: "2022-09-08"
content_type: "Press Releases"
canonical_url: "https://itif.org/publications/2022/09/08/white-house-principles-on-tech-platforms-exaggerate-risks-and-overlook-unintended-consequences-says-itif/"
---

# White House’s Principles on Tech Platforms Exaggerate Risks and Overlook Unintended Consequences, Says ITIF

WASHINGTON—Following today’s White House Listening Session on Tech Platform Accountability and [the release of principles](https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/09/08/readout-of-white-house-listening-session-on-tech-platform-accountability/) for “enhancing competition and tech platform accountability, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), the leading think tank for science and technology policy, released the following statement from Aurelien Portuese, director of ITIF’s Schumpeter Project for Competition Policy:

*If implemented, the tech platform principles announced today would do more harm than good. The antitrust bills that the White House supports would limit innovation and harm consumers. The White House seeks to undermine key provisions of Section 230, which would risk censoring legitimate speech.*

*Minimizing data collection and limiting targeted ads would reduce beneficial uses of data and reduce the availability of free online services. And regulating automated decision-making would do nothing to protect consumers impacted by human bias—but it would create a disincentive for organizations to use innovative technologies for more accurate decisions with less bias.*

*The White House should focus on addressing real harms to consumers from the digital economy, such as cyber malware; identity theft, spam marketing calls, and other similar problems. The U.S. platform economy is a global success and does need wholesale change.*

For more on this issue, see:

- David Moschella, “[Theory Aside, Antitrust Advocates Should Keep Their ‘Big Tech’ Ambitions Narrow](https://itif.org/publications/2022/03/07/theory-aside-antitrust-advocates-should-keep-big-tech-ambitions-narrow/)” (ITIF, March 2022).

---
*Source: Information Technology & Innovation Foundation (ITIF)*
*URL: https://itif.org/publications/2022/09/08/white-house-principles-on-tech-platforms-exaggerate-risks-and-overlook-unintended-consequences-says-itif/*