7 U.S. tech policies to watch in 2025

1. AI regulation

One of the first big announcements was the revised federal approach to AI. Under the Biden administration, there had been much debate and concern from both industry and government about balancing the opportunity of AI with its potential threat. Some AI companies were willing to work with more significant safeguards. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman asked Congress to enact protective legislation in 2023; others felt imposing federal restrictions would impede growth and innovation.

On Jan. 23, 2025, Trump repealed Biden's 2023 AI executive order, which addressed potential harm caused by AI by establishing new guardrails. The new executive order (EO), titled "Removing Barriers to American Leadership in Artificial Intelligence," expressed the importance of allowing the U.S. to reassert itself as the global leader in AI and the need to remove any obstacles to that mission. It also mentioned the importance of developing AI systems “free from ideological bias or engineered social agendas."

President Trump also used the first days of his presidency to announce a new AI infrastructure project worth $500 billion, named Stargate. This project is intended to be a partnership led by OpenAI and Softbank, with Microsoft, Nvidia and Oracle all playing key roles as technology partners.

OpenAI announced that an initial investment of $100 billion would be deployed immediately and put toward building several new AI data centers across the country, beginning in Texas. Stargate aims to help re-establish the U.S. as a global leader in AI and provide additional strategic capabilities for national security. This announcement came just days before Chinese company DeepSeek gained international attention for the open release of its new AI models.

2. Antitrust enforcement

The first Trump presidential term saw a traditional approach to antitrust, with several large-scale investigations initiated against the tech industry. These were continued under President Biden, resulting in legislation such as the 2023 Federal Trade Commission (FTC) lawsuit against Amazon for illegal monopolization of power. However, while the Trump administration originated many antitrust investigations, Donald Trump's broader antitrust stance was deemed more conventional than Biden's. Although no formal statements have come out of the Oval Office regarding antitrust, it is expected that Trump's second term will see a similar approach, especially following his initial personnel appointments.

Specifically, Trump has proposed the nominations of Federal Trade Commission (FTC) commissioner Andrew Ferguson as FTC chair; Gail Slater, former advisor to Vice President J.D. Vance, as assistant attorney general for the Justice Department's Antitrust Division; and Mark Meador as proposed third Republican FTC commissioner.

It is unclear what this means for existing antitrust cases, such as the one against Apple. It is also unknown whether Trump will direct the Justice Department to continue or halt the current efforts to break up Google's monopoly over search.

As of Feb. 18, 2025, the FTC shared in a press release that it would continue to follow the 2023 Merger Guidelines that originated under the Biden administration, emphasizing the importance of "stability" in enforcement guidance. However, in the announcement, new FTC Chair Ferguson did not rule out the introduction of appropriate revisions in the future.

3. Cryptocurrency deregulation and stockpile

Trump's approach to technology policy includes the FinTech sector, specifically cryptocurrency. 

On Jan. 23, 2025, he signed an EO titled "Strengthening American Leadership in Digital Financial Technology," expressing the Trump administration's support for responsible growth and use of digital assets and blockchain. The EO spoke of the importance of promoting and protecting the U.S. dollar's sovereignty and the potential risks of Central Bank Digital Currencies. The EO includes establishing the President's Working Group on Digital Asset Markets, whose responsibilities include "evaluating the potential creation and maintenance of a national digital asset stockpile." The new White House AI and crypto czar, David Sacks, leads these efforts.

This executive order counteracts a former EO under Biden, which focused on "responsible innovation in digital assets" and a Treasury Department framework for digital assets. Trump has described those former approaches as anti-innovation; the new order aims to help establish the U.S. as a global leader in digital finance.

Other relevant personnel changes include the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair, with former chair Gary Gensler stepping down in January 2025. Trump plans to replace him with Paul Atkins, a former SEC Commissioner and CEO of Patomak Global Partners. Since Trump assumed office, the SEC has withdrawn the accounting rule SAB 121, which required financial institutions to treat cryptocurrency as a liability on balance sheets. Repealing the rule removes the strict capital requirements on cryptocurrency, making it easier for banks and other financial institutions to adopt cryptocurrency.

Finally, just before the inauguration, Trump and First Lady Melania Trump launched their meme coins, which are a type of cryptocurrency tied to a social media trend. The coins’ values peaked at $73 for President Trump and over $13 for Melania Trump. This engagement with cryptocurrency and meme coin culture is the first of its type by the first family.

4. TikTok ban

One of the biggest news stories of the year revolves around the potential ban of the social media app TikTok within the U.S. Trump initially tried to ban the app through executive order during his first term in office but was unsuccessful. Following those early conversations, anti-TikTok sentiment gained momentum within the government; principal concerns were tied to the national security threat of Chinese access to the data of U.S. citizens. This culminated in 2024 under President Biden, when Congress passed a law that required TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, to sell its U.S. assets to a U.S. company -- or be banned.

Trump has since changed his stance on the social media app, announcing on TikTok itself that he did not support a ban in June 2024. Nevertheless, the Congress ruling set a deadline of Jan. 19, 2025, for TikTok to spin off its U.S. operations. Late on Jan. 18, TikTok suspended its U.S. operations in anticipation of the ban; U.S. users who opened the app were shown a notice stating that a law had been enacted but that "President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok." After about 12 hours of being offline, the service was reinstated. An EO signed by Trump on Jan. 20, 2025, extended ByteDance's deadline to comply with Congress's ruling by 75 days.

ByteDance has not confirmed any intention to sell off its U.S. assets. What will happen when the 75-day extension ends on April 4, 2025, is unknown.

5. Social media censorship

Social media censorship and free speech have been active topics in this regard and in former administrations. In recent years, social media platforms have undergone several evolutions in how they approach content moderation, with debate over what should be considered free expression and what should be flagged as inappropriate content.

Recently, there has been a shift toward less content moderation. For example, in early January 2025, Meta announced that it would remove its third-party fact-checking program and instead adopt a "Community Notes model," as is practiced at Elon Musk's platform X. This model gives users the power and responsibility to add context to posts that they deem potentially misleading, rather than removing the original post entirely.

6. DOGE and modernizing federal software

One of Trump's first announcements ahead of his second presidential term was his intention to create a new Department of Government Efficiency, also known as DOGE. DOGE is not a formal government agency, but a temporary organization led by Elon Musk. It has been tasked with "modernizing federal technology and software to maximize efficiency and productivity." The initiative targets software, network infrastructure and IT systems. However, the method by which such an audit will be conducted is not specified.

 One way this modernization might occur is through greater use of AI. OpenAI announced a new product, ChatGPT Gov. This tool is an extension of its popular ChatGPT model, designed to be self-hosted on government cloud architectures so that federal usage can meet security, privacy, and compliance requirements. In its announcement, OpenAI shared its hope that "this infrastructure will expedite internal authorization of OpenAI's tools for the handling of non-public sensitive data."

7. EU regulations and Big Tech

While the U.S. government adopts a less restrictive approach to tech innovation, the European Union (EU) and the United Kingdom have continued introducing and enforcing greater regulation. While not solely targeting the tech industry, many EU regulations have restricted the activity of Big Tech and required greater standards when introducing new products and services, such as the EU's 2022 Digital Markets Act. As a result, many U.S. tech companies have been fined for lack of compliance with these rules.

In response to these regulations, Trump expressed complaints to the EU because it is treating U.S. companies "unfairly" and has questioned its right to levy fines against American entities. His comments at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, included a general request for changes in the relationship between the EU and U.S. companies regarding trade, tax and regulation.

Madeleine Streets is a senior content manager for WhatIs. She has also been published in 'TIME,' 'WWD,' 'Self' and Observer.'