In light of this Politico article on the White House aiming an Executive Order at Big Tech, reupping a piece I wrote last summer about the creative fiction at the heart of most "regulate the tech monopolies" arguments.
medium.com/@davekarpf/the…
TL;DR: For those who have determined that the solution is 'the government should regulate Google and Facebook,' let me ask: which government? *This* government?
Which alumnus of the Trump golf and real estate empire ought to be in charge of regulating digital media platforms?
The creative fiction at the heart of 'regulate the tech monopolies' is that we pretend we are talking about a generic government.
What's missing today is not a failure of imagination or of regulatory courage. The U.S. government is facing a crisis of competence.
OF COURSE the Trump administration has decided that the problem with social media is that it doesn't amplify rightwing extremists enough.
OF COURSE the Trump administration is treating calls for regulation as an opportunity to demand concessions for their partisan team.
This was always going to be how the Trump administration approached regulation of Big Tech. This is the only way that they approach regulation of any sort.
That's not to say there aren't *real* regulatory problems that need solving. It's not to say that Google, Facebook, and Amazon aren't quasi-monopolies. All of that is obviously true.
But those of us who have spent the past few years arguing that it is finally time to talk about serious regulation have been dodging an uncomfortable but equally obvious reality.
In an ideal world, now is the right time to regulate Big Tech. But we're stuck living in this world.
I don't know what the Trump administration's EO will eventually look like. But I know the general thrust of it. We all do.
It will be an exercise in brute-force power, designed to force tech platforms to be more accommodating of the worst actors with the worst impulses.
And the policy research community will tut, "well this isn't the regulatory framework we had in mind, but we sure are glad to finally be having the policy conversation."
It will be tragedy and farce, all at the same time.
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