What Experts Wonder About Trump's Tech Agenda

President-elect Donald Trump convened some of the Silicon Valley's biggest names—including Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella—to talk about the tech industry at Trump Tower on Wednesday.

Policy wonks have been eagerly awaiting pool reports from the meeting for hints about Trump's attitude toward the domestic technology sector, his interest in modernizing federal operations and his potential future investments in cybersecurity.

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Trump has been tight-lipped about his technology policy agenda. He has made only a handful of comments related to technology, including a broad pledge to conduct a "thorough review" of cyber defenses.

During the campaign, his comments about potentially shutting down parts of the internet to limit violent extremists prompted several high-profile technology executives, including Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, to co-sign an open letter arguing Trump showed "both poor judgment and ignorance about how technology works" and called him a "disaster for innovation.”

Since the election, some tech businesses are reaffirming those views. Hundreds of employees from companies including Google, Slack, Twitter and Stripe recently signed another letter refusing to help build a "Muslim registry," a database that would store the names of immigrants from countries with a Muslim-majority.

Those employees also pledged to “advocate within our organizations: to minimize the collection and retention of data that would facilitate ethnic or religious targeting” and to promote end-to-end encryption where possible. 

In another letter, executives including Kiva President Premal Shah, 500 Startups Founding Partner Dave McClure and Code for America Founder Jen Pahlka pledged their refusal to "contribute our skills or platforms to any effort that infringes on civil liberties by any government agency."

Still, Trump hasn't made specific technology commitments and hasn't selected someone to head the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy, which could signal his policy direction, according to Stuart Brotman, a senior fellow at the Center for Technology Innovation within the Brookings Institution. 

Here are topics a Brookings panel of tech experts said they're concerned about during an event Wednesday:

• Could Trump apply the rhetoric about bring jobs to the United States to technology manufacturing? For instance, Brotman asked, would he negotiate with companies, such as Apple to, move their manufacturing out of China and back here?
• Will Trump pursue a "conciliatory, productive relationship with Silicon Valley," CTI Fellow Susan Hennessey asked during the panel. "It’s also possible to imagine a far more antagonistic vision," she added, noting that one clue might be the eventual tone of the technology roundtable occurring in New York on Wednesday.
• How much does Trump care about cybersecurity? Hennessey said this incoming administration might expect to see "more voluntary [cyber] frameworks" for technology companies, which "might actually be welcome to Silicon Valley." But there are other debates she expects conflict about, such as encryption. Earlier this year, Trump urged consumers to boycott Apple after it refused to help the FBI create a backdoor into a suspect's phones following a terrorist attack. Trump's sentiment "indicated strong sympathies with law enforcement…[and] did not demonstrate that he was interested in being conciliatory or playing a moderate role."
• How will the Homeland Security and Defense departments split cyber responsibilities? Trump has hinted at moving more cyber responsibilities into the Pentagon, Hennessey added, arousing "broad concerns about the militarization of civilian cybersecurity." Potential barriers to this approach include laws preventing the Pentagon from being involved in parts of domestic law enforcement.
• Will Trump's ambitious infrastructure plan strengthen broadband connectivity, especially in rural communities, CTI Fellow Nicol Turner-Lee asked during the panel. "We see some promise in the infrastructure bill, but the devil will be in the details.
• Does Trump know enough about new technology to make decisions about investing in federal research and technology transfer? "Trump himself made his money in real estate, some of his early cabinet appointments ... are coming from old industries, as opposed to the digital economies," CTI Vice President and Director Darrell West said. "My concern going forward is whether he actually understands these issues of technology transfer, how to promote a digital economy."