WHO WE ARE

The American Edge Project is a coalition dedicated to the proposition that American innovators are an essential part of U.S. economic health, national security and individual freedoms.

The coalition and its members will tell the story about the positive impact technology and innovation have on America’s economy and businesses, particularly small ones, and how they enhance freedom of expression and our nation’s overall security.

ECONOMIC GROWTH

America’s innovators support millions of jobs across the country. They benefit businesses and organizations of all sizes by bringing their products to a broad consumer base around the world.

Preserving an open and accessible internet is a critical component of conveying innovative ideas, building new organizations, inventing new goods and services, growing new businesses, reaching new customers, and developing new sectors.

OPEN & ACCESSIBLE INTERNET

American innovators underpin an internet that is open, accessible, and welcoming of free expression. Not everyone around the world experiences those qualities. Some countries – with fundamentally different values – believe in a closed, censored internet, and use it to arrest and imprison citizens for political, social, or religious speech online.

To maintain America’s edge, we need a smart policy approach that doesn’t weaken companies that share American values as they compete in the global marketplace. As policymakers consider the rules and laws that govern innovators, we urge them to protect American values of openness, accessibility, and freedom of expression as essential contributors to America’s competitive advantage.

NATIONAL SECURITY

As a global leader in innovation, the U.S. has strengthened its ability to protect its citizens, defend its allies, articulate our principles of freedom, expression and association, and encourage developing democracies.

Policies that forfeit our competitive edge to foreign entities – particularly those that are state-owned or directed – put the safety, privacy, and liberty of free people and governments at risk.

“To export U.S. digital power, the government must partner with the private sector and incentivize domestic innovation to help empower the U.S. tech industry to continue to thrive at home and around the world.”

– American Edge Project National Security White Paper
“The preservation of America’s technological competitive advantage must rightfully be recognized by policymakers as a pressing priority, not merely for the products it generates, but for the principles it guards.”

– Bradley A. Smith, AEP Co-Chair and Chairman and Founder, Institute for Free Speech
“We should ensure that our most innovative companies can outcompete their foreign competitors, that regulation encourages economic dynamism that allows startups and small businesses to flourish, and that benefits of the innovation economy are shared throughout the American economy, with all Americans.”

– Economic Policy Agenda to Accelerate American Innovation, AEP
“America must fortify and strengthen its innovation edge. To do so, lawmakers need to turn away from proposals that will damage our innovation ecosystems, handicap our most successful companies, make it harder for startups, and advantage our foreign adversaries.”

– Gov. Susan Martinez, Sen. Kent Conrad, Sen. Saxby Chambliss

OUR COALITION

The American Edge Project is a newly formed coalition of domestic organizations dedicated to promoting and protecting American innovation for the long term.