Digital platforms
How to Mitigate the Political Impacts of Social Media and Digital Platform Concentration
Ahead of its annual conference on Digital Platforms, Markets and Democracy, the Stigler Center formed a committee to produce independent white papers that will...
The Political Footprint of Big Tech in Five Easy Charts
Big tech firms have been active in Washington since the early days of the Microsoft antitrust case, but in recent years they have increased...
Restoring Antimonopoly Through Bright-Line Rules
The “consumer welfare” approach to antimonopoly is the main contributor to the extreme and dangerous concentrations of power that Americans face today. In place...
When We Outsource Privacy Compliance, We May Undermine Privacy Protection
Privacy law is currently being shaped and implemented by a new industry of third-party tech vendors. These companies code their own interpretations of privacy...
Amazon's Latest Supplier Purge Is a Classic Indicator of Price Predation
Regulators in Washington should immediately launch an investigation into Amazon’s e-commerce business.
In a recent article (and subsequent blog post), I argued that Amazon’s...
The Road to Digital Serfdom? The Visible Hand of Surveillance Capitalism
Surveillance capitalism is not the capitalism of old, writes Harvard professor emerita Shoshana Zuboff in her new book The Age of Surveillance Capitalism.
Surveillance capitalism departs...
Is Amazon Violating the Sherman Act?
A new paper suggests that Amazon’s negative cash flow rapid expansion story may in fact conceal a long-term predatory pricing strategy that violates existing...
Social Media Clickwraps and the “Manufacture of Consent”
A new study identifies a political economic interface design strategy that threatens privacy protections by maintaining “the biggest lie on the internet.”
We check the...
The News Media’s Business Model of Extortion
The Jeff Bezos vs. The National Enquirer scandal highlights the role that extortion may play in the business model of some news outlets.
Jeff Bezos’s...
Facebook Is a Threat to Democracy — and the US Has a Responsibility to Rein It In
Facebook and Google have failed at self-regulation. If we want to avoid an authoritarian future, we need to reduce the influence of internet platforms,...
