Digital Economy

How the Free Software and the IP Wars of the 1990s and 2000s Presaged Today’s Toxic, Concentrated Internet

How did the internet evolve from a relatively decentralized, hybrid, and democratizing space toward a concentrated, privatized environment controlled by a handful of actors?...

The EU’s Attempt at Updating Antitrust Market Definition for the Digital Age

The rise of digital platforms has upended markets and the very act of market definition—the basic unit of antitrust analysis. With the review of...

Fixing Facebook Would Take More Than Collective Action – It Requires Structural Change

With its dominant market power and its role as both social outlet and news provider, Facebook possesses enormous power over the flow of free...

Allowing Digital Platforms to Continue Picking the Winners and Losers of Our Economy Is Un-American

Antitrust law aims to stop established companies from shutting out competitors. We should revive enforcement against exclusionary conduct, as well as structurally eliminate the...

Spotify Is Mimicking Google's and Facebook's Strategy: Will It Ruin Podcasting?

Spotify announced the acquisition of The Ringer, one of the biggest networks in podcasting: a step further in its quest to dominate the audio industry...

Spotify Is Mimicking Google’s and Facebook’s Strategy: Will It Ruin Podcasting?

Spotify announced the acquisition of The Ringer, one of the biggest networks in podcasting: a step further in its quest to dominate the audio industry...

Facebook’s Enduring Control Over Social Media Markets

According to the British Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), Facebook accounts for 75 percent of the UK’s social media market. Over the past 10 years,...

Google’s and Facebook’s Grip on Digital Advertising Markets

Since July 2019, the UK's Competition and Markets Authority has been conducting an extensive investigation of the digital advertising market. In its preliminary report on...

How Allowing a Little Bit of Dissent Helps the Chinese Government Control Social Media

A new study on three major social networks in China finds that tolerating small, relatively free platforms helps the Chinese government maintain sufficiently high...

Bethany McLean’s Weekend Reading List: TikTok Deepfakes, Online Advertising, and the US-China Standoff

Corruption, lobbying, corporate malfeasance, and frauds: a weekly unconventional selection of must-read articles by investigative journalist Bethany McLean.    "Fiction is the lie through which we...

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