Short description:

The Regulation of Digital Industries calls for a single industry regulatory agency to promote competition, privacy and free speech in digital industries.

Long description:

The Regulation of Digital Industries is the first book to address the tech backlash within a coherent policy framework. It treats competition, privacy and free speech as objectives that must be pursued in a coordinated fashion by a dedicated industry regulator. It contains detailed discussions of current policy controversies involving social media companies, search engines, electronic commerce platforms and mobile apps. It argues for new laws and regulations to promote competition, privacy and free speech in tech and outlines the structure and powers of a regulatory agency able to develop, implement and enforce digital rules for the twenty-first century.

Deeply informed by the history of regulation and antitrust in the United States, it brings to bear insights from the breakup of AT&T and the Microsoft case and from broadcasting and financial services regulation to enrich the discussion of remedies to the failure of tech competition, the massive invasion of privacy by digital firms and the information disorder perpetuated by social media platforms. It offers a comprehensive summary of regulatory reform efforts in the United States and abroad and shows how accomplishing the goals of these reform efforts requires the establishment of a single digital agency with jurisdiction to reconcile and balance the complementary and conflicting goals of promoting competition, protecting privacy, and preserving free speech in digital industries.

It discusses in detail how a digital regulatory agency would be structured and the powers it would need to have. It confronts head on some of the challenges in establishing a strong digital regulator including the First Amendment roadblock that limits government authority over digital speech and the judicial opposition to the expansion of the administrative state. It is essential reading for policymakers, public interest advocates, industry representatives, academic researchers and the general public interested in a coherent policy approach to today?s tech industry discontents.

Table of Contents:

Foreword

1. Digital Industries and Their Discontents

Introduction

Dominance in Digital Industries

Centrality of Digital Services

Privacy Challenges

Content Moderation Challenges

The Regulatory Solutions

The Digital Regulator

Coda: From Here to There

2. Competition Rules for Digital Industries

The Anti-Monopoly Moment

Promoting Competition in the Telephone Industry

Preventing Monopolization in Computer Software

The New Pro-Competitive Tools

Amazon?s Antitrust Troubles

The Google-Apple Mobile App Duopoly

Google?s Search Monopoly

The Ad-Tech Conundrum

Facebook?s Mergers

Privacy and Content Moderation in Digital Mergers

Data Portability, Interoperability and Nondiscrimination for Social Media

Regulatory Forbearance

Conclusion

3. Privacy Rules for Digital Industries

Introduction

What is Privacy?

Limitations of Privacy as Individual Control

Legal Bases for Data Use

Data Minimization and Purpose Limitation

Ban on Abusive System Design

Fiduciary Duties of Care and Loyalty

Restricted Use

Expert and Balanced Enforcement

First Amendment Issues

Coda

4. Content Moderation Rules for Social Media Companies

Introduction

User Transparency

Transparency Reporting

Access to Social Media Data for Researchers

Regulation of Social Media Algorithms

A Dispute Resolution Program for Social Media Companies

Notice Liability

Political Pluralism

Social Media Duties to Political Candidates

First Amendment Issues

5. The Digital Regulator

Introduction

Defining Digital Industries

Defining Dominance and Centrality

Agency Structure and Jurisdiction

Exclusive jurisdiction

Independence

Limited Authority

Accountability

Co-Regulation

Internal Organization

Resources

Other Policy Issues

Regulatory Capture

Balancing Agency Missions

Judicial Review

Chevron Deference

Non-Delegation

Implications for the Digital Regulator

Conclusion

6. Where Do We Go From Here?

Introduction

Competition Policy

Privacy

Content Moderation

Coda