Big Tech companies have spent much of the past decade censoring conservatives. Yet a handful of congressional Republicans want to overlook this abuse -- and make it easier for Big Tech firms to steal technologies from small businesses and garage-shop inventors.
It's a horrible idea, both politically and economically. Conservatives in Congress would be wise to squash the bill before Big Tech lobbyists are able to advance the proposal any further.
Corporate America went woke in the 2010s and first part of this decade -- and Big Tech firms led the vanguard of this cultural revolution. Companies like Apple implemented aggressive Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion policies that discriminated against straight, white, male candidates and employees. Google's AI image generator launched last year and was notorious for its left-wing bias -- prompts like "generate a picture of the Founding Fathers in a bar" would frequently yield images where the Founders were black.
And all the while, those tech companies frequently censored anyone who pushed back. As the Alliance Defending Freedom's Center for Free Speech noted, Big Tech has "suppressed speech reflecting the views of millions of Americans, often under vague and subjective 'acceptable use policies' that prohibit alleged 'hate' speech or 'misinformation.'"
Conservatives aren't the only victims of Big Tech, though. As these companies ramped up their political activism and bias over the past decade, they simultaneously scaled up a deeply unethical business strategy of "efficient infringement."
Essentially, the strategy involves big companies deliberately stealing smaller firms' patented technology. The corporate giants essentially bet that, if the smaller company sues for patent infringement, the bigger firm can use its wealth and army of lawyers to drag out the lawsuit, hoping the smaller firm will run out of money and settle for a pittance. Tech giants like Apple, Google, and Meta are serial patent infringers.
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Only in recent years have small firms discovered a more effective way to fight back and level the playing field. They've started partnering with third-party investors, who provide the funding necessary to see the lawsuit through to victory. If and when the case is won, these investors generally receive a cut of the proceeds.
Without this funding, small businesses often wouldn't be able to defend their rights in practice, even if the patents remain valid in theory. A study from the Government Accountability Officedescribed third-party funding as "crucial" and found that it enabled small businesses to "protect their investments in research and development."
Of course, Big Tech firms hate when their prey fight back using this financial lifeline. So they're working with a handful of RINOs -- Republicans in Name Only -- in Congress on a measure that'd make it far more difficult for small businesses to obtain this financing.
Senator Thom Tillis, one of just a handful of Republicans to actively oppose President Trump's signature tax cuts and border security bill this summer, is the lead sponsor of a measure. The scheme, which is supported by Big Tech and the Chamber of Commerce, would impose punitively high taxes on the proceeds from any successful lawsuit.
Investors are already generally selective in the patent suits they fund. After all, they only make money if they win. But if the potential earnings are just going to be confiscated by the IRS, third-party firms will simply stop backing these lawsuits altogether.
That's exactly Big Tech's goal, of course -- ban third-party funding in practice, while keeping it available in theory.
If this tax ever becomes law, woke corporations will once again be able to steal smaller companies' ideas and designs with impunity. Helping Big Tech win its battles with smaller firms is bad economic policy. And for conservatives, it's even worse politics.
Drew Johnson is a columnist, tech policy analyst, and government watchdog who was the Trump-endorsed Republican nominee for Congress in Nevada’s 3rd Congressional District in 2024.
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