I appreciate the opportunity to provide comments related to the Department of Justice (DoJ) and National Economic Council (NEC)’s Request for Information regarding State Laws Having Significant Adverse Effects on National Economy or Significant Adverse Effects on Interstate Commerce. This comment does not represent the views of any particular party or special interest group but is intended to assist regulators in considering the ways state level technology regulations related to consumer data privacy, artificial intelligence (AI), and online speech and content moderation.

In that regard, I seek to discuss the requested information as it has related to state-level actions on technology policy issues that are likely to have or have significant adverse effects including the following key points:

  • State laws that seek to regulate naturally interstate technology policy issues including artificial intelligence (AI) and data privacy can raise costs and disrupt markets with a particular impact on smaller players;
  • With regards to online speech laws are likely already preempted by Section 230; however, more generally due to the interstate nature of data and the internet the federal government should consider preempting certain disruptive state level technology regulation through its existing interstate commerce powers;
  • If regulation is necessary on these technology policy issues, a federal framework enacted by Congress is the appropriate level of regulation to both prevent potential disruptions and economic costs while addressing the concerns of consumers and innovators;
  • If agencies are delegated authority, it should come with clear direction from Congress. Agencies may be able to regulate the specific applications within their purview or expertise, but they should refrain from broad regulation without explicit delegation from Congress particularly for general purpose technologies.