Thread by @OlenaHavrylchyk

I’m an economist, but I’ve recently been reading a lot of research, mostly written by lawyers, about MARKET POWER of TECH platforms, such as Apple, Facebook, Google and Amazon.

This THREAD summarizes the most important articles and reports:

Sources of tech platform power are summarized by @linamkhan:
1) leveraging monopoly power in one market to enter the ancillary market; 2) gatekeeper power; 3) increasing returns to data and information exploitation power.

georgetownlawtechreview.org/wp-content/upl…

Rahman argues that big tech increasingly operates as foundational utilities (or infrastructures) for much of today’s economy. Google and Facebook - informational infrastructure, while Amazon - new retail infrastructures

cardozolawreview.com/wp-content/upl…

@DinaSrinivasan describes the evolution of Facebook business model from the one where clients’ privacy was guarded with a promise not to track and monitor consumers’ digital footprints to the surveillance-based business model.

The shift from privacy to surveillance has happened AFTER Facebook had achieved its dominant position in the social media.

scholarship.law.berkeley.edu/cgi/viewconten…

Algorithmic harms due to gatekeeper power are discussed by @zeynep Gatekeeper power refers to the process by which non-transparent algorithms determine the informational content on online platforms, such as Facebook News Feeds and Google search results. ctlj.colorado.edu/wp-content/upl…

Another expert panel @StiglerCenter chaired by @ProfFionasm: framing, nudges & default options direct a consumer to the choice that is most profitable for the platform. Returns to more dimensions and types of data may be increasing, which further advantages incumbents.

Solutions: data sharing & full protocol interoperability. judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/…

The Digital Competition Expert Panel in the UK, chaired by @jasonfurman, proposes inter alia making platforms’ data available for competitors, which would facilitate the entry of new businesses.

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/upl…

A recent EU report "Competition Policy for the digital era" finds that digital markets might require competition authorities to err on the side of disallowing potentially anticompetitive conducts, even if the firm is not a dominant player on the market.
ec.europa.eu/competition/pu…