He once worked for Big Tech. Now this Utah lawmaker is leading efforts to regulate it

SALT LAKE CITY — When asked about the biggest win Utah lawmakers achieved during the recent legislative session, Gov. Spencer Cox offered a surprising answer.

His pick, HB418, wasn't surprising because it protects online user data — Cox has been one of the strongest proponents of reining in Big Tech — nor was it surprising that the governor picked a bill that passed with near-unanimous support from lawmakers in both parties.

What was surprising was that the bill was the brainchild of a first-time lawmaker, who didn't miss a beat in shepherding it through the Utah Legislature in his first weeks in elected office. But the issue is something Rep. Doug Fiefia has been thinking about for years, going back to his time working for Big Tech companies like Google.

'We were always the product'

It's no secret that Google collects a vast amount of data on millions of Americans, but when Fiefia began working in technology sales for the company he said he — along with many others in the company — viewed that data as a way for Google to improve its products by "connecting the products or the companies to the people that were searching for them."

That view eventually gave way to an uneasiness about just how much information the company has and how it uses it, eventually leading to his departure, Fiefia said.

"The more and more I dove into it, the more and more I realized is this company, they're trying to make a bottom line. And the reality is that the features that they were building ... they are exploiting you and I," the Herriman Republican told KSL.com in an interview in the House lounge Tuesday. "I think I realized very quickly that users — us, you and I — as regular citizens, were never the customer. We were always the product that was being sold and we were being served up on a silver platter."

Fiefia's answer was HB418, a first-of-its-kind bill that gives Utahns the right to control the data that is collected from them by social media companies. The bill requires that users be able to delete their data from a platform or download and transfer it to another platform. It also directs social media companies to enable communication across different platforms, akin to how email users can communicate with others regardless of provider.

Cox called it "as big a piece of legislation as I have ever seen a freshman (lawmaker) run" during a ceremonial signing of the bill in April, during which Fiefia said he hopes the law will "shift power back to where it always should have remained — with the people."

"They were trading our free will for profit margin and that's why I wanted to run this type of bill — to give people back the control of their data to own, manage and control it," he said Tuesday. "And I think this is the first step. I think there are probably more steps to come after this."

Google did not respond to a request for comment.

In the case of HB418, Fiefia's youth was a key factor in building support for the bill, as he was able to explain the technicalities of online data collection in a way that made sense to older or less tech-savvy colleagues. He compared modern data ownership to regulations enabled by the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which allow users to keep their phone numbers if switching providers.

Put that way, Fiefia said, skepticism from colleagues warmed up to the idea, telling him: "I don't understand all the technical pieces of this, but if that's the principle, I agree."

'They've crossed the line'

Fiefia looks like a conservative Republican on most issues — his campaign website declares him anti-abortion, pro-business and pro-gun — but his thinking on tech regulation mirrors a change within the conservative movement that has been led in part by Utah.

The state was the first in the nation to enact broad social media regulations — though their future is still being worked out in the courts — and has joined with a coalition of states in suing major companies that own Facebook and TikTok.

Fiefia still views himself as pro-business, but argues that social media companies have built their brands off of content created by users. Rather than view his data privacy bill as stifling business, he sees it as promoting individual ownership of intellectual property.

"We would never allow any other industry to do what we've allowed Big Tech to do," he said. "You're right, I believe in the free market, but when it comes to our identify, our digital footprint and their control of it and their manipulation of it, that's where I think conservatives came to the table and said: 'You know what, we don't like regulating, we believe in a free market, but this is just wrong. They've crossed the line.'"

"This is actually my property," Fiefia added. "I created this. I wrote that. I posted this. That is mine and what we've allowed them to do for so long is to claim it, to use it and to abuse it."

Government and AI regulation

While governments are still scrambling to catch up with the disruption social media platforms have caused, the next powerful technology, artificial intelligence, is emerging. The "reactive" approach to social media has contributed to poor mental health outcomes for children, Fiefia said, and the lawmaker is hopeful government will be more proactive this time around.

"I fear that if we do the same thing, if we take the same approach with AI, too many people will get hurt," he said. "The advancement of AI and the technology is so robust and so advanced that if we take a reactive approach, I fear that it's just going to be too late."

But Fiefia worries that Congress is already taking steps to make it harder for states to adopt artificial intelligence protections. Tucked into President Donald Trump's "one, big, beautiful bill" — which passed the House Thursday — is a provision enacting a 10-year moratorium on state regulations of artificial intelligence.

"We believe that excessive regulation of the AI sector could kill a transformative industry just as it's taking off," Vice President J.D. Vance said in February, per CNN, articulating the administration's position.

Fiefia disagrees, arguing that states are nimbler and better able to adapt to rapid technological advances compared to an infamously unproductive Congress. He anticipates Big Tech and privacy issues are "going to be my fight in the Legislature ... for the rest of my time here," so AI will be on his mind regardless of what Congress does.

That's not to say Fiefia is opposed to the advancing technology — it's just the opposite. He seems tremendous potential across the board, particularly in health care, where he is optimistic artificial intelligence will lead to medical breakthroughs and cures for disease that humans have been unable to master.

He just doesn't want to make the same mistake many did with social media by overlooking the potential harms.

"We've got to find a balance, to figure out how do we protect users and make sure that we continue to support innovation?" he said. "That's what I'm always thinking about. I don't ever want to over-regulate, but I also want to see if we allow this technology to run, what does it look like if it's used by the wrong hands?"

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