Last year, Epic Games sued Apple, arguing — among other things —that its restrictions on app store payments for digital goods were anticompetitive. Last week, a California judge ruled partly in Epic’s favor. The outcome in the Epic v. Apple trial is good for developers and users. It falls well short of bringing about the […]

If you’re one of the millions of Americans who uses an old cell phone, has an older alarm system in your home, or wears certain personal medical alert devices, then sometime in the next six months you may suddenly find that your device no longer works. That’s because mobile phone companies are barreling ahead with […]

Big Tech Has Big Problems. The House Antitrust Subcommittee has released a suite of legislation to break down Big Tech’s concentrated market power based on the recommendations from its in-depth report on the industry’s competition problems. Economists who study digital platforms recognize that these markets are prone to tipping to one or a few firms, […]

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic in our country, millions of Americans cannot connect to the internet because they can’t afford to, preventing them from going to school, working, accessing government benefits and connecting with friends and family. To remedy this problem, Congress created the Emergency Broadband Benefit (EBB), which offers low-income consumers a $50 discount on […]

When people buy things, they own them. When we talk about ownership, we generally think of it as a bundle of rights the owner possesses: like the right to repair or resell. But there is another way to understand ownership. The devices you buy and the software you use should work for you, the user. […]

Last week, Facebook disabled the accounts, apps, Facebook pages, and platform access associated with several researchers at the NYU Ad Observatory. The Ad Observatory is a voluntary data donation program that invites Facebook users to install a browser plugin — the Ad Observer — that collects information about the ads a user sees. Its most […]

In late June, the House Judiciary Committee voted to approve, on a bipartisan basis, a six-part package of legislation designed to restrict dominant digital platforms from leveraging their power to disadvantage competitors or promote their own lines of business unfairly. We hope the bills will eventually have counterparts or companions from the Senate. Our purpose […]

How the FCC’s Faulty National Broadband Map Renders Americans Without Internet Access Invisible In an era when broadband is essential to innovation, jobs, and education, the U.S. digital infrastructure is at risk as millions of Americans across the nation still lack access to high-speed internet. Lack of reliable and affordable internet is a long-standing problem […]

Share your internet bill here and learn more about the Let’s Broadband Together initiative below.  Many of us use broadband every day, whether it’s to connect to loved ones, access healthcare, work or study. Just today, I’m using it to write this blog post, text my sisters, and log in to a virtual doctor’s appointment. […]

If you’ve been following the Capitol Hill hearings about algorithms and automated decision-making, then you’ve probably heard technology companies talk about how they offer or want to offer “transparency and user control” to consumers. Companies like Facebook and Twitter propose sharing information on how their algorithms work with the public, as well as enabling users […]