The 19th Century Idea that Could Help Fix Big Tech

When it comes to tech companies, lawmakers often seem to be talking about different things at once. Sometimes lawmakers are angry that tech companies don’t take enough action to protect their users, saying companies need to be held liable for harms, particularly harms to children. At other times, they complain tech companies are taking too much action by unfairly excluding some users and content from social media. These two issues—liability and deplatforming—are sometimes treated as separate issues, but they are closely connected. For hundreds of years, American law has been grappling with the problem of whether, when, and how to deplatform individuals and content. Not on social media platforms, which obviously didn’t exist, but in public utilities and other infrastructural businesses. Laws in these areas offer important insights into how to regulate social media and other tech platforms. The first step is to start thinking of technology a bit differently, less as a product or service and more as a utility.

[Ganesh Sitaraman is a professor of law at Vanderbilt University and director of the Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator for Political Economy and Regulation.]