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TOTM Ajit Pai will step down from his position as chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) effective Jan. 20. Beginning Jan. 15, Truth on the Market will host a symposium exploring Pai’s tenure, with contributions from a range of scholars and practitioners.
Ajit Pai will step down from his position as chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) effective Jan. 20. Beginning Jan. 15, Truth on the Market will host a symposium exploring Pai’s tenure, with contributions from a range of scholars and practitioners.
Read the full piece here.
TL;DR It comes as no surprise to anyone that illegal conduct occurs online. Unfortunately, the individuals and businesses engaging in illegal activity may avoid detection by using tools that hide their identity. This makes enforcement difficult or even impossible.
It comes as no surprise to anyone that illegal conduct occurs online. Unfortunately, the individuals and businesses engaging in illegal activity may avoid detection by using tools that hide their identity. This makes enforcement difficult or even impossible.
In some cases, there may be targeted solutions available whereby intermediaries are required to record and verify the identity of business customers. In principle, this approach could be used to directly pursue parties actually liable for illicit content with minimal burden on either the platforms, or non-business customers.
Read the full explainer here.
Scholarship Abstract There is growing academic, regulatory, and legislative interest in “dark patterns” – digital design practices that influence user behavior in ways that may not . . .
There is growing academic, regulatory, and legislative interest in “dark patterns” – digital design practices that influence user behavior in ways that may not align with users’ interests. For instance, websites may present information in ways that influence user decisions, or use design elements that make it easier for users to engage in one behavior (e.g., purchasing the items in a shopping cart) than another (e.g., reviewing the items in that shopping cart). The general thrust of this interest is that dark patterns are problematic and require regulatory or legislative action.
While acknowledging that many concerns about dark patterns are legitimate, this Article discusses the more nuanced reality about “patterns”: that design is, simply, hard. All design influences user behavior, sometimes in positive ways, sometimes in negative; sometimes deliberately, sometimes not. This Article argues for a more cautionary approach to addressing the concerns of dark patterns. The most problematic uses of dark patterns almost certainly run afoul of existing consumer protection law. That authority – not new, broader rules – should be our first recourse to addressing these concerns. Beyond that, this is an area where we should both allow the marketplace – including the design professionals working to improve User Interface and User Experience design practices – should be allowed to continue to develop, but with the understanding that Congress and regulators have a keen interest in ensuring that consumer interests are reflected in those practices.
Presentations & Interviews TPRI Conference Slides on Killer Acquisitions & Kill Zones
ICLE’s Geoffrey Manne, Dirk Auer, and Alec Stapp presented at the Technology and Declining Economic Dynamism conference, hosted by Boston University’s Technology and Policy Research Initiative, on the topic of acquisitions by dominant firms. Full video of the panel can be found here, while the the presentation slides are here.
TOTM The COVID-19 crisis has recast virtually every contemporary policy debate in the context of public health, and digital privacy is no exception. Conversations that once . . .
The COVID-19 crisis has recast virtually every contemporary policy debate in the context of public health, and digital privacy is no exception. Conversations that once focused on the value and manner of tracking to enable behavioral advertising have shifted. Congress, on the heels of years of false-starts and failed efforts to introduce nationwide standards, is now lurching toward framing privacy policy through the lens of proposed responses to the virus.
ICLE Issue Brief PPI Director of Technology Policy, Alec Stapp reviews the antitrust cases against IBM, AT&T, and Microsoft and discusses what we can learn from them today. He explains the relevant concepts necessary for understanding the history of market competition in the tech industry.
Alec Stapp, current Director of Technology Policy at Progressive Policy Institute, and former Research Fellow, Law & Economics at International Center for Law & Economics (ICLE), reviews the antitrust cases against IBM, AT&T, and Microsoft and discusses what we can learn from them today. He explains the relevant concepts necessary for understanding the history of market competition in the tech industry.
Big Tech continues to be mired in “a very antitrust situation,” as President Trump so eloquently put it in 2018. Advocates for more aggressive antitrust enforcement in the tech industry often justify their proposals by pointing to the cases against IBM, AT&T, and Microsoft. In announcing her plan to break up the tech giants, Elizabeth Warren highlighted the case against Microsoft in particular:
The government’s antitrust case against Microsoft helped clear a path for Internet companies like Google and Facebook to emerge. The story demonstrates why promoting competition is so important: it allows new, groundbreaking companies to grow and thrive — which pushes everyone in the marketplace to offer better products.
Tim Wu, a law professor at Columbia University, summarized the overarching narrative recently (emphasis added):
If there is one thing I’d like the tech world to understand better, it is that the trilogy of antitrust suits against IBM, AT&T, and Microsoft played a major role in making the United States the world’s preeminent tech economy. The IBM-AT&T-Microsoft trilogy of antitrust cases each helped prevent major monopolists from killing small firms and asserting control of the future (of the 80s, 90s, and 00s, respectively). A list of products and firms that owe at least something to the IBM-AT&T-Microsoft trilogy. (1) IBM: software as product, Apple, Microsoft, Intel, Seagate, Sun, Dell, Compaq (2) AT&T: Modems, ISPs, AOL, the Internet and Web industries (3) Microsoft: Google, Facebook, Amazon
If there is one thing I’d like the tech world to understand better, it is that the trilogy of antitrust suits against IBM, AT&T, and Microsoft played a major role in making the United States the world’s preeminent tech economy.
The IBM-AT&T-Microsoft trilogy of antitrust cases each helped prevent major monopolists from killing small firms and asserting control of the future (of the 80s, 90s, and 00s, respectively).
A list of products and firms that owe at least something to the IBM-AT&T-Microsoft trilogy.
(1) IBM: software as product, Apple, Microsoft, Intel, Seagate, Sun, Dell, Compaq (2) AT&T: Modems, ISPs, AOL, the Internet and Web industries (3) Microsoft: Google, Facebook, Amazon
In other words, by breaking up the current crop of dominant tech companies, we can sow the seeds for the next one. But this reasoning depends on an incorrect — albeit increasingly popular — reading of the history of the tech industry.
Click here to read the full issue brief.
Regulatory Comments The purpose of this submission is to highlight some of the findings of the relevant scholarship to help to inform the ACCC’s work, and to highlight some of the problems that may arise during the course of the study, given the misconceptions about competition between advertising-funded digital platforms that are common in the media and popular debate today.
The International Center for Law and Economics (ICLE) welcomes the opportunity to make a submission to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s (ACCC) Digital Advertising Services Inquiry. As a nonprofit, nonpartisan research center, ICLE works with academics around the world to promote scholarship into the intersection of law and economics.
The purpose of this submission is to highlight some of the findings of the relevant scholarship to help to inform the ACCC’s work, and to highlight some of the problems that may arise during the course of the study, given the misconceptions about competition between advertising-funded digital platforms that are common in the media and popular debate today.
This submission will focus on three areas raised by the Issues Paper: concentration of market power in digital advertising, unequal access to data acting as a potentially anti-competitive barrier to entry, and the effect of vertical integration on competition and innovation.
Click here to read the submission.
TOTM I type these words while subject to a stay-at-home order issued by West Virginia Governor James C. Justice II. “To preserve public health and safety, and to . . .
I type these words while subject to a stay-at-home order issued by West Virginia Governor James C. Justice II. “To preserve public health and safety, and to ensure the healthcare system in West Virginia is capable of serving all citizens in need,” I am permitted to leave my home only for a limited and precisely enumerated set of reasons. Billions of citizens around the globe are now operating under similar shelter-in-place directives as governments grapple with how to stem the tide of infection, illness and death inflicted by the global Covid-19 pandemic. Indeed, the first response of many governments has been to impose severe limitations on physical movement to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus. The second response contemplated by many, and the one on which this blog post focuses, involves the extensive collection and analysis of data in connection with people’s movements and health. Some governments are using that data to conduct sophisticated contact tracing, while others are using the power of the state to enforce orders for quarantines and against gatherings.
TOTM The importance of testing and contact tracing to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus and resume normal life is now well established. The difference . . .
The importance of testing and contact tracing to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus and resume normal life is now well established. The difference between the communities that do it and the ones that don’t is disturbingly grim (see, e.g., South Korea versus Italy). In a large population like the U.S., contact tracing and alerts will have to be done in an automated way with the help of mobile service providers’ geolocation data. The intensive use of data in South Korea has led many commenters to claim that the strategy that’s been so effective there cannot be replicated in western countries with strong privacy laws.
