As frigid temperatures drove the Presidential inauguration indoors for the first time in 40 years, President Donald Trump once again took office surrounded by a who’s who of U.S. technology leaders. Even amidst the pomp and circumstance of this quadrennial event, few elements were as discussed and scrutinized as the presence of Big Tech’s most prominent leaders.

And yet, their presence and prominence should be of little surprise, given the level of scrutiny companies such as Meta, Google, Apple, and Amazon are facing from governments across the world, and how much they stand to gain or lose from developing close relationships with political leaders.

These companies, likely because of this scrutiny and the opportunities granted by a change in administration, are in the midst of significant policy restructurings aimed at better positioning themselves for the political realities of a second Trump administration. Most notably, Meta CEO Marck Zuckerberg announced days before the inauguration that the company was to “return” to a “fundamental commitment to free expression” by ending their third-party fact checking program and moving towards a community notes model.

Free speech will undoubtedly be the cornerstone of technology policy in the second Trump Administration and companies are certainly wise to publicly align themselves with this ideal. For media executives and content creators, this means ensuring that advocacy narratives both respond to the administration’s free speech concerns and respond to the free speech arguments promoted by Big Tech.

Executive action

On January 23, President Trump signed an executive order stating that the country must “develop AI systems that are free from ideological bias or engineered social agendas.” The President also stated that this executive order “clears a path for the United States to act decisively to retain leadership in AI, rooted in free speech and human flourishing.”

Although these actions are clearly focused on affirming the administration’s ideological stances and distancing the administration from its predecessor, using AI to profess broader policy positions was first done by the Biden administration. As the American public gained awareness of the promise and peril of AI in 2022, then-President Joe Biden unveiled an AI “Bill of Rights” which included protection from discrimination and bias as one of its key principles. Such language carried on to the now revoked Biden-era AI executive order.

Given the prominence of AI in the national discourse, it is logical that President Biden, and now President Trump, would utilize AI policy to assert ideological stances. While AI policy during the Biden administration was focused on combating AI-enabled discrimination against protected classes, the Trump administration is focused on the protection of free speech and combatting censorship.

Policy and power players

In the same way that Meta and Google have embraced policies that adjust to political realities, AI companies have begun to do the same. On January 13, OpenAI published its “Economic Blueprint.” The policy document is meant to present a framework that champions the “individual freedoms at the heart of the American innovation ecosystem.”

One of these freedoms, according to OpenAI, is that of “ensuring that AI has the ability to learn from universal, publicly available information, just like humans do.” This purported freedom should raise alarm bells for publishers and content creators. As the media industry continues to fight for the protection of its intellectual property, AI companies have set out to create a “fair use” argument for their past and future transgressions. Their focus on “individual freedoms” is a shrewd approach, and one that is aimed directly at the interests of the administration and its Congressional allies.

Fair use and fair licensing deals

2025 will be decisive year for AI policy that will see the most significant movement thus far for substantial industry regulation. If publishers and content creators are to successfully compete with the policy narratives of major tech companies and AI companies, then they too must embrace a narrative that highlights the threats to free speech and freedom posed by unregulated technologies that can misrepresent or censor political or personal viewpoints.

For example, if publishers and content creators can successfully argue that fair licensing deals will allow AI companies to license unbiased or ideologically diverse content libraries, and thus promote diverse viewpoints and avoid ideological bias, the policies they are advocating for will become more politically salient and will have a higher likelihood of capturing the attention of policymakers and the general public. This new administration is eager to make its mark on AI policy. Publishers and content creators must speak to the free speech priorities that now dominate political discourse, or risk being drowned out by more powerful voices as much-anticipated legislation is finally set in motion.