Big tech threats: Making sense of the backlash against online platforms

A growing tech-skeptic chorus is drawing attention to the ways in which information technology disrupts democracy. No country is immune. With a better understanding of the principles undergirding both foreign and domestic responses to the threats posed by big tech, each subsequent section in this paper will lay out the specific dimensions of the political and economic problems that have arisen in the digital age, the policy responses and proposals pursued abroad, and the ideas guiding debate in the US. The goal of this paper is to serve as a resource so that as US lawmakers consider how to improve transparency in online advertising, protect user privacy, mitigate the threat posed by harmful content, empower content creators dependent on online platforms, and ensure competition in the digital economy, they can draw on the experience of other democratic governments around the world.