Platform Neutrality Means New Rules for Policy Outcomes, AEI Scholars Say

The move toward platform neutrality regulation "is anything but neutral," and what's emerging are rules to force companies to behave in ways that achieve policy goals, blogged American Enterprise Institute visiting scholar Roslyn Layton Wednesday. Sens. Al Franken, D-Minn, and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., "brandished" platform neutrality principles, which Layton sees spanning a "grab bag of concepts such as hate speech, fake news, safe spaces, brand safety, content take down, the right to be forgotten and market power." Another goal of platform neutrality regulation is preventing users "from consuming information that leads them to make the 'wrong' choice at the ballot box." Complexities of regulating tech markets are illustrated in the recent Amazon-Google spat over connected devices and YouTube streaming (see 1712060013 and for related news Wednesday 1712200060 and 1712200061), AEI visiting fellow Bret Swanson wrote earlier this month.