IID Insights reflect the views and opinions of their authors, and not IIID as a whole.

In the United States, tech policy once seemed like the last bastion of bipartisanship. In 2026, it’s on the front line of fascism vs. democracy. But too many tech policy professionals are still acting like it’s business as usual, evaluating policy proposals independently of the broader context of President Donald Trump’s—and Silicon Valley’s—assault on democracy, the rule of the law, and the Pax Americana of the post-war era. Continuing to do so is appeasement at best, and fascist collaboration at worst.

This is not exactly a novel insight. In March 2025, Techdirt founder and editor Mike Masnick published a blog post titled “Why Techdirt is now a democracy blog (whether we like it or not),” explaining that

…what’s happening in the US right now is some sort of weird hybrid of the kind of power grabs we’ve seen in the tech industry, combined with a more traditional collapse of democratic institutions… The story that matters most is how the dismantling of American institutions threatens everything else we cover. When the fundamental structures that enable innovation, protect civil liberties, and foster open dialogue are under attack, every other tech policy story becomes secondary (emphasis added).

Techdirt continues to do an excellent job scrutinizing how power and technology interact, along with other tech-focused publications like 404 Media, Wired, and Tech Policy Press.

Just as tech journalists bring essential perspectives to covering the organized destruction of American government and society, tech policy experts have a unique role to play in defending democracy. As Center for Journalism and Liberty director at the Open Markets Institute and Tech Policy Press board member Courtney Radsch writes, “Tech policy has become integral to resisting authoritarian tendencies.” Many of us understand this well, of course: civil society is full of Cassandras rightly decrying the growth of surveillance technology, unaccountable automated decision-making tools, and attacks on free expression. This isn’t new, either: public interest advocates have been making these points for literal decades.

… Read the full piece online.