Though the next U.S. presidential election is still more than a year away, the campaign messages of electoral hopefuls are already shaping policy conversations. Among them is the recent proposalOpens a new window put forward by Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren to break up some of the big tech giants and encourage fiercer competition in the sector.
Warren’s position comes amid growing concern over the role of tech that could have massive consequences for human resources in the tech industry.
Warren’s suggestions spring from classical anti-trust theory and growing concern over the influence that tech giants Facebook, Google and Amazon, among others, wield over civic society – including over public debate, an issue that was sharply illustrated when Facebook (FB) removed ads from its platform bought by Warren’s campaign to promote her proposal.
“Curious why I think FB has too much power?†she tweetedOpens a new window . “Let’s start with their ability to shut down a debate over whether FB has too much power.â€
The concrete moves put forward in her proposal list reversing anti-competitive mergers, including Amazon’s purchase of Whole Foods and Zappos, Facebook’s acquisition of WhatsApp and Instagram and Google’s takeover of Waze, Nest and DoubleClick.
She also proposed blocking large companies from competing on their own platforms, such as Google ranking its own ratings system in search results over competing systems like Yelp.
Warren’s aren’t the first of such proposals to be put forward of late. A policy paper released last summerOpens a new window by Virginia Democratic Senator Mark Warner proposed increasing tech companies’ responsibility for cracking down on fake accounts and making them liable for breaches of privacy and defamation – though Warner stopped short of suggesting a break-up of the major tech companies.
In some ways, Europe has already paved the way for such policy moves with the passage of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which went into effect last year. The GDPR requires that companies  protect the personal privacy of EU citizens by securing information like IP addresses and health data.
For HR, the policy has requiredOpens a new window increased protection of employee data through security training and encryption practices, as well as heightened privacy considerations during analytics-driven recruiting.
The changes, alongside growing concerns about data security in the U.S. in the wake of the Russian cyber tampering in the 2016 presidential elections, has led to a surge in demand for cybersecurity professionals.
One international security organization estimatedOpens a new window that the worldwide demand for cybersecurity professionals outstrips supply by about three million jobs. In the U.S., another organization reportedOpens a new window that if cybersecurity jobs posted between September 2017 and August 2018 were filled, it would constitute a 40% increase in the cyber workforce.
In addition to these changes, the Warren and Warner proposals would likely galvanize even more dramatic shifts in the HR needs of the tech industry. Increased liability for violations such as defamation could lead to a concentrated demand for legal professionals, both for in-house needs in terms of responding to claims as well as teams devoted to strategically identifying vulnerabilities before they become a major concern.
While similar strategies have already been launched in limited ways – Facebook, for example, has created fact-checking teams to crack down on false news reports being circulated on its platform – the policy proposals would require making these kinds of teams more formally integrated into company structures.
Banning companies from competing on their own platforms could open significant opportunities for small businesses to develop a competitive edge; it would also likely lead to a major push for companies to create subsidiaries that could operate independently and bypass regulations.
In either case, the need for SEO and communications professionals who could aggressively position companies competing on more open platforms would also likely increase.
The proposals from Warren and Warner are only a few examples of concrete measures, but they have been put forward in a climate of increased scrutiny on the role of tech in society. Whether any of the actual proposals are adopted or not, they can be read as a gauge for the kinds of concerns that will play an increasingly central role in how tech companies are perceived.
The proposals may or may not become law, but companies would be well-advised to use them as a guide to develop best practices, and to take steps to stay ahead of the concerns that gave rise to them to begin with.