Larry Downes: “Is the tech backlash going askew?” (Washington Post)

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Wednesday, January 16, 2019

As winter sets in, the dark days for technology companies have been getting longer.

We sympathize with the increased anxiety over the poor data hygiene practices of leading tech platforms. And we agree that legislation clarifying the duties of those who collect and use personal information is important, as is delineating enforcement responsibilities among agencies and jurisdictions.

We’re concerned, however, by the tendency of some to shoehorn pet theories into the debate — notably the passionate but incomplete argument that it’s time to jettison decades of antitrust policy that limits the government to intervening only when market concentration has, or could, cause higher prices for consumers.

Read more of Larry Downes’ op-ed with Blair Levin in The Washington Post .