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Justice Thomas, Countervailing Power, and Big Tech

Justice Thomas has entered a hot debate about the best means of regulating social media.  His approach to regulation tends to be more function-centric as opposed size-centric.

Should President Biden Revoke Section 230?

The beautiful dream of an open and free internet, serving as a global agora of unlimited free speech to provide for more democratic participation, has crashed and burned one more time.

Reclaim Democracy From Technocracy

Our present predicament, characterized as it by an emboldened and rapacious post-U.S. Capitol siege Big Tech edifice all too eager to dutifully serve as a repressive ruling class appendage, was perfectly encapsulated on Friday by two of my Commons co-bloggers.

Asymptotic Freedom

Far from being on a censorship slipper-slope, Big Tech will soon lose their ability to confine our interactions altogether.

Corporate-Sponsored Censorship

Parler, the alternative to Twitter, is being strangled by the tech giants. Apple and Google removed the app from their app stores. Amazon removed the company from its web-hosting service. These companies claim these actions serve the public interest.

The Ramifications of a Regime-Level Politics

The quite clearly collusive actions of the Big Tech giants, in recent days, accelerate even further the national reckoning that has been overdue at least since Big Tech’s coordinated “Pearl Harbor attack” against the nation’s fourth-largest newspaper on the precipice of the monumental recent presidential election.

Let’s Stop Scaring People About Technological Change

If you’re an average working person, going about your life, trying to put the next meal on your table, and happen to listen to the media and pundits talk about technology, your natural response is probably to vote a straight Luddite ticket in the next election.

What To Do After Big Tech’s Pearl Harbor Attack on the New York Post

As of this writing, the New York Post, the nation’s fourth-largest newspaper, has been locked out of its own Twitter account for almost two weeks.

Justice Department Sues Google (But have they focused on the right target?)

As widely expected, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and 11 states have filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google, accusing the company of using anticompetitive tactics to illegally monopolize the Read more…

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Social Media Is an Engineering Disaster Waiting to Happen

Fake news pales in its power to real news presented with misleading frequency.

Can the Left Overcome Its Technopessimism?

In his excellent American Compass essay “The Five Deadly Sins of the Left”, Ruy Teixeira calls out the left for what he terms their “technopessimism”. He writes: “the Left has Read more…

The Flattering Alarmism of The Social Dilemma

The new and popular documentary, The Social Dilemma, probably could have been an article published in 2018. That’s not to dismiss what it has to say. Framed as the social media equivalent of Food Inc., the movie interviews academics and former tech company execs, all of whom make now-popular arguments about the hidden costs of social media.

How Should We Handle Monopolies?

A House of Representatives sub-committee report on large technology platforms has determined that Apple, Google, Facebook, and Amazon are abusive monopolies.  Matt Stoller has summarized the report’s recommended course of Read more…

Time to Incorporate Competitiveness Into Anti-Trust

U.S. antirust doctrine and practice has long failed to consider issues of industrial competitiveness.

To Counter China, Some Republicans Are Abandoning Free-Market Orthodoxy

Jeanne Whalen reports on Republican enthusiasm for industrial policy, citing American Compass’s Moving the Chains report.

Big Tech Reveals the Flaw in Citizens United

Last week, the House Antitrust Subcommittee grilled the CEOs of four large technology platforms – Apple, Amazon, Google, and Facebook – for five and a half hours, focusing on the market power these corporations have accumulated over the last fifteen to twenty years.

Intel’s Stumble is Very Bad for America

America used to dominate the semiconductor industry, but that leadership position is increasingly fragile. There are two parallel forces at work: the rise of our competitors and the decline of our domestic champions.

Intel’s Troubling Pledge on Outscourcing

Intel has been conspicuous among Silicon Valley high-tech companies, insofar as until now it has resisted the siren song to send much of its manufacturing offshore.

Big Tech, Antitrust and America’s Future

Wednesday’s “must watch” House Judiciary hearing with the CEOs of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google raised a host of questions, including what the goal of antitrust should be (maximizing economic welfare or other goals, like protecting small business), and how should we think about platform industries.

The GOP’s Embarrassing Big-Tech Performance

The modern-day Titans of Industry testified before Congress Monday ostensibly for a hearing on anti-trust.

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