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Sep 30, 2024 | 
brookings.edu | Mark MacCarthy
Matt Stoller recently made the case that Google’s antitrust troubles mean that the company might be broken up. He is enthusiastic about the prospects for innovation if a shrunken Google were confined to a narrow market such as general search. But he wonders whether our current institutions are up to the task of supervising such a radical restructuring of a tech giant.
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Aug 28, 2024 | 
cigionline.org | Mark MacCarthy
Google’s announcement in late July that it is dropping its plan to eliminate third-party cookies in its Chrome browser suggests regulators must strengthen institutional mechanisms for balancing the demands of promoting business competition and protecting consumer privacy.
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Jul 11, 2024 | 
techpolicy.press | Mark MacCarthy
Chief Justice John Roberts’ opinion in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo overturning the Chevron deference appears to be a defeat of the administrative state by an out of control “judicial oligarchy” which, as law professor Barry Friedman has described, is how political reformers used to describe reactionary courts during the progressive era.
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Jul 10, 2024 | 
brookings.edu | Jack Malamud |Cameron F. Kerry |Mark MacCarthy |Katharine Meyer
On June 28, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) handed down its decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, ending four decades of “Chevron deference” and imperiling the regulatory state as we know it. The doctrine in question is the result of Chevron U.S.A. v. NRDC (1984), in which the Court held that, where statutory ambiguities exist, federal judges must generally defer to the interpretation of regulating agencies.
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May 28, 2024 | 
benton.org | Mark MacCarthy
A common reaction among tech policy and internet freedom advocates to the upcoming ban of TikTok in the US is to reject it as a step back from the traditional US internet policy of openness, free speech, and innovation. How, they say, can the US argue for these traditional values internationally when the US is so blatantly violating them itself?
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May 23, 2024 | 
brookings.edu | Mark MacCarthy
A common reaction among tech policy and internet freedom advocates to the upcoming ban of TikTok in the U.S. is to reject it as a step back from the traditional U.S. internet policy of openness, free speech, and innovation. How, they say, can the U.S. argue for these traditional values internationally when the U.S. is so blatantly violating them itself?
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Apr 17, 2024 | 
techpolicy.press | Mark MacCarthy
In a recent LinkedIn post, privacy professional Omer Tene opines that the recently-introduced American Privacy Rights Act of 2024 (APRA) has a “fatal flaw.” The problem, says Tene, is that the APRA requires companies to have a legal basis for collecting and using personal information.
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Mar 20, 2024 | 
brookings.edu | Mark MacCarthy
In a previous TechTank blog, I suggested that the time might be ripe for regulating the prices that monopoly app stores can charge app developers. In this post, I want to take a deeper dive into how the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) is seeking to promote contestability and fairness in the mobile app industry. The DMA approach does not avoid price regulation.
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Feb 3, 2024 | 
thehill.com | Mark MacCarthy
The lesson of New York City’s requirement for bias audits of employment algorithms is that policymakers must regulate AI vendors. A landmark New York City law, known as NYC 144, requires employers to conduct bias audits every year for the automated employment tools they use. I testified in favor of the earlier version that put the burden on the vendor of the employment tool.
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Feb 1, 2024 | 
brookings.edu | Mark MacCarthy
In a recent post, antitrust advocate Matt Stoller welcomes “a national discussion to actually build a healthy air grid, and turn away from the deregulation that has brought us so much trouble.” The occasion for his rejoicing is an antitrust court’s rejection of a merger between JetBlue and Spirit Airlines. He welcomes the court’s recognition that the airline industry has become a cozy oligopoly and its refusal to countenance any further consolidation.
