Hitting the Books: US regulators are losing the fight against Big Tech | Engadget

In their new book, Access Rules: Freeing Data from Big Tech for a Better Future, Viktor Mayer-Schönberger, Professor of Internet Governance and Regulation at Oxford, and Thomas Ramge, author of Who's Afraid of AI?, argue passionately against the data-hoarding practices of today's biggest tech companies and call for a more open, equitable means of accessing the information that these companies have amassed. © 2022 by Thomas Ramge and Viktor Mayer-Schönberger.Early into his term, President Biden appointed Tim Wu, who had argued in favor of breaking up Facebook and written popular books on the dangers of Big Tech market concentration, to the National Economic Council as a special assistant to the president for technology and competition policy. With Khan at the FTC and Wu as advisor having the ear of the president, Big Tech could be in serious trouble.Not just antitrust experts serving in government like Tim Wu and Lina Khan fear that the monopolistic structure of American tech dominance could turn into its Achilles heel. But that will do little to break Big Tech’s information power.The challenge faced by European regulators is shared by regulators around the globe, from the Asian Tigers to the Global South: how can national regulators effectively counter the information might amassed by Silicon Valley superstars? The huge fines levied on Alibaba in 2021 surely are surprising for outside observers, but they, too, are targeting symptoms, not the root cause of Big Tech’s power.Sooner or later, regulators and legislators will have to confront the real problem of reining in Big Tech: whether we look at Draconian measures like breakups or incremental ones like fines and acquisition lockups, these target the symptoms of Big Tech’s information power, but do little to undo the structural advantages the digital superstars possess.