Digital platforms
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,...
“It’s Crucial to Break Up Facebook”
Columbia law professor Tim Wu on The Curse of Bigness, neo-Brandeisian antitrust, and the lessons we should learn from the first Gilded Age.
Four...
Editors’ Briefing: This Week in Political Economy (December 9-16)
Congress misses an opportunity to scrutinize Google; the IRS is on life support; Johnson & Johnson reportedly knew for decades that its baby powder...
Editors’ Briefing: This Week in Political Economy (December 2-9)
Documents released by British Parliament show Facebook’s attempts to stifle competition; the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau no longer protects consumers; provider consolidation is driving...
Editors’ Briefing: This Week in Political Economy (November 18-December 2)
New report reveals America’s “concentration crisis”; antitrust enforcers and regulators in Europe are going after Amazon, Facebook and Google; Facebook’s ongoing Soros debacle; and...
Antitrust in a Changing Economy and Changing Economics
Jason Furman, former chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers: We will likely need to update our competition policies to promote competition if we...
If You Don’t Think Today’s Tech Giants Are Vicious, Just Ask Venture Capitalists
Silicon Valley today resembles the deepest part of the jungle known as the triple canopy, where tall trees block out all the light and...
Inside Tech’s “Kill Zone”: How to Deal With the Threat to Edge Innovation Posed by Multi-Sided Platforms
Dominant tech platforms can exploit the vast amounts of user data available only to them to squash startups and independent providers. Hal Singer offers...
