Rep. Ro Khanna, who represents a district in the heart of Silicon Valley, Friday called for an internet "Bill of Rights" to help protect consumers as antitrust investigations open into Facebook and Google.
"Consumers need to know what is happening to our data," the California Democrat told Fox News' "America's Newsroom." "We need to be able to consent when our data is transferred. There need to be federal standards for safeguarding consumers and I think we need to pass that on a bipartisan basis."
However, there is a fine line between issuing regulations and stifling competition, said Khanna.
"I think what we have to look at is what is in the consumer's interest," he said. "That is ultimately what privacy and antitrust law have to be. We need well-crafted regulations to make sure that consumer privacy is protected."
It's important, though, that the companies succeed, he added.
"Our competition is China and others," said Khanna. "I want America to lead in artificial intelligence and quantum computing. I don't want America to lose out to China. We need to have a balance."
Meanwhile, Facebook has been "increasingly" forthright, said Khanna, and he believes people like COO Sheryl Sandberg want to help craft privacy regulation and to understand how to comply with antitrust measures.
"Obviously they made mistakes in the past and they've acknowledged those mistakes," said Khanna. "It is time to come together to hold the companies to account but also realize technology is one of America's comparative advantages and we want to continue to lead the world in that."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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