Brookings

Technology-driven changes—like those we are presently experiencing—produce demands for security and stability that pose a threat to liberal democracy and capitalism. Across the world, autocrats are on the rise because they claim they can deliver answers; symbols such as Brexit or the Wall pose as solutions; and old economic “isms” are reborn as “new” solutions.

There can be little doubt that the major digital companies have gained a level of economic control akin to the industrial barons of the Gilded Age. It is important to take steps to introduce much needed competition into the digital marketplace. Clearly, a more active review of mergers is necessary, even when the acquired company is comparatively small.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s call for new rules for the Internet is a start. The four proposals he makes open the door to a meaningful discussion about the effects of internet capitalism. Now what is needed is a similar look at the issues underlying the market dislocations caused by a handful of internet companies. As significant as Zuckerberg’s proposals are, it is important to recognize they deal with the effects of internet commerce more than their causes: the business model of internet companies.

American technology companies today find themselves in a conundrum Oscar Wilde identified: “There are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.” The tech companies—both networks and the platform services that ride on them—have run the table in Washington as multiple government agencies and Congress repeatedly walked away from regulatory oversight. The result has been the digital companies’ discovery of Wilde’s second tragedy. 

What should be the broadband agenda for infrastructure legislation? Here are some key principles.

Several of the draft bills related to privacy in the 116th Congress present concrete signs of an emerging shift in the underlying model for privacy regulation in the current discussion, from one based on consumer choice to another focused on business behavior in handling data. This paper focuses on this key element of the taxonomy—how proposals reflect this shifting paradigm and how the change affects other aspects of privacy protection.