As POTUS, Biden will overturn Trump's immigration EOs, support net neutrality, and may not prioritize Section 230 reform, but his antitrust approach is unclear
For the first time in years, US will have someone who likes evidence, governs using science, won't peddle quack theories and drugs, will fact check statements and accept fact check corrections, & will put reality before imaginary conspiracies. REFRESHING. #Biden https://twitter.com/... Seung Min Kim / @seungminkim : News —> @JoeBiden plans immediate flurry of executive orders to reverse Trump policies, w/ @mviser @AnnieLinskey https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... Barry Silbert / @barrysilbert : This is good for crypto https://www.wsj.com/... Zeynep Tufekci / @zeynep : This happened only after it became clear he lost. For the record. https://twitter.com/... Alex Stamos / @alexstamos : The Trump universe shifting to an “alt-platform” instead of FB/Twitter is both a response to the labeling and perhaps a signal that this messaging is going to be focused on the true believers and not a wider audience of Americans. Simultaneous capitulation and pivoting. https://twitter.com/... Anita Sarkeesian / @anitasarkeesian : Why wasn't it always https://twitter.com/... Bill Gates / @billgates : Congratulations to President-Elect Biden and Vice President-Elect Harris. Thank you to the election officials and campaign workers who worked tirelessly to ensure a record number of Americans could cast a ballot and have it counted during such an challenging time for our country. Teddy Schleifer / @teddyschleifer : Still no word from Mark Zuckerberg but here's his wife, Priscilla Chan, on the election results and Kamala Harris's history-making moment. “This means so much to me,” Chan writes. https://twitter.com/... Emily M. Farris / @emayfarris : This is great. DACA recipients deserve more - Biden needs to tell Congress to work ASAP on citizenship for any DACA recipient who wants it. https://twitter.com/... @gsiskind : Not clear when bans on immigrant visa processing and nonimmigrant processing as well as the coronavirus travel bans will be reversed. They will be, but the big challenge is the sheer number of actions needed. Keeping our issues at the top of the agenda will be OUR job. https://twitter.com/... Eric Feigl-Ding / @drericding : 5) Best Executive Orders to start a presidency. https://twitter.com/... Democratic Coalition / @thedemcoalition : Elections have consequences. Biden will immediately: - End Trump's bigoted Muslim ban - Rejoin the Paris Climate Accords - Reinstate DACA - Rejoin the World Health Organization #PresidentElectJoe https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... @rmac18 : Sheryl Sandberg posts her congrats to Biden and Harris. Nothing yet from Zuckerberg. https://twitter.com/... Brad Smith / @bradsmi : As we did in 2016, we offer our congratulations to the President- & Vice-President-Elect @JoeBiden and @KamalaHarris. As we move forward as a nation, we look forward to helping build bridges to close the gaps that divide us. @Microsoft's thoughts here: https://nam06.safelinks.protection.outl ook.com/ ... Tom Warren / @tomwarren : Amazon CEO @JeffBezos reacts to the Biden win. “Unity, empathy, and decency are not characteristics of a bygone era.” https://www.instagram.com/... https://twitter.com/... Philip Lewis / @phil_lewis_ : Twitter confirmed Trump will lose Twitter privileges he enjoys as a world leader when Biden takes office on Jan 20. “Trump's account will be subject to the same rules as any other user — including bans on inciting violence and posting false information” https://www.theverge.com/... Amir Efrati / @amir : For Facebook Inc, though, the biggest battle hath just begun: https://www.theinformation.com/ ... https://twitter.com/... Nikhilesh De / @nikhileshde : NEW: Former Vice President @JoeBiden has beaten @realDonaldTrump in the 2020 Presidential elections. I get into potential crypto implications here for @CoinDesk. #Election2020 https://www.coindesk.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
This lands where Democratic strategists predicted in August: no aggressive opening moves on tech, but a relationship cooler than the Obama era. The immediate agenda is reversal by pen stroke — immigration orders scrapped, DACA reinstated, the Muslim ban ended, Paris and WHO rejoining — while the platform questions stay deliberately vague.
The ambiguity is the story for Silicon Valley. Biden's own campaign said he still wanted to repeal Section 230, just with more moderation rather than less, yet the transition signal is that reform may not be a priority at all — and his antitrust posture toward Amazon and Facebook is explicitly undecided.
First-order effects
- Twitter applies its standard rules to Donald Trump's account once Biden takes office, ending the exemption that came with the presidency.
- DACA recipients and travelers previously barred under the Muslim ban get relief immediately, since these reversals need only executive action, not Congress.
Second-order effects
- An FCC refocused on restoring net neutrality flips the regulatory posture that broadband carriers spent years lobbying into place, reopening the fight they thought was settled.
- Facebook and Amazon face a holding pattern on antitrust: no announced crackdown, but an administration whose appointees are expected to be less cozy with tech than Obama's, keeping enforcement risk alive without a timetable.
Third-order effects
- Tech policy is becoming a per-administration pendulum: the same executive-order instrument Biden uses to unwind Trump's rules was later used again when a new order revoked the Trump-era EO targeting Section 230 protections, meaning platform rules swing with each election rather than settling through legislation.
- With Section 230 left to Congress and antitrust undefined, the durable shift is structural uncertainty itself — platforms must plan for policy that resets every four years instead of a stable bipartisan regime.
The trend: US tech regulation is entering an era of executive-order whiplash, where each administration reverses its predecessor's platform and internet rules faster than Congress can legislate anything durable.