Pluralistic: 04 Aug 2021


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Pluralistic: 12 Jul 2021


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The EU, Tech Trustbusting, and Trade Wars

There’s a difference between protectionism and political will

The EU flag superimposed over a Matrix “code waterfall” effect; in the center of the ring of stars is a vintage newspaper caricature of Roosevelt as a trustbuster, swinging his “big stick.”

Competition regulators in the EU, the UK and the US are all looking hard at concentration in the tech sector, and well they should: an industry that was once hailed for its dynamism — for being a sector where yesterday’s world-spanning titans are sold for parts to companies that were mere napkin doodles a year or two before — has calcified into “a group of five websites, each consisting of screenshots of text from the other four.

The reasons for tech concentration are pretty straightforward. Despite a lot of fatalistic tech exceptionalism about “network effects” leading to inevitable monopolization, the actual means by which tech companies consolidated is actually easy to see in the historical record.

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Pluralistic: 16 Jun 2021


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Pluralistic: 12 Jun 2021


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  • The ACCESS Act: The most significant interop legislation in US history.
  • This day in history: 2006, 2011, 2016, 2020
  • Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading

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Consent theater

Some of privacy’s thorniest questions

The torso and hands of a zoot-suited con-artist playing a shell game; behind his body is a Matrix-style waterfall of green characters on a black background. The pea in the shell-game is the eye of HAL9000 from 2001. Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg CC BY: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

Just say that we “fix” Facebook, making it possible for you to take your data and go to a rival service, one that respects your privacy, pays its taxes, and isn’t bent on enclosing all digital spaces into its pervasive surveillance walled garden.

It’s an idyllic vision, but our problems are just getting started.

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Pluralistic: 27 Apr 2021


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Pluralistic: 20 Feb 2021


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Pluralistic: 05 Jan 2021


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