Issues

Auctions versus Posted Prices in Online Markets

When eBay first became popular, most sellers listed goods for sale in an auction format. Over time, posted prices began to predominate. Sellers were influenced by two factors, growing competition between sellers, and buyers’ preference for the convenience of posted prices.

Facebook Was Letting Down Users Years Before Cambridge Analytica

In 2011, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) found that Facebook had deceived users about how much data it shared with third-party apps, and how that data was used. Facebook was required to ensure that outsiders did not obtain such data, but failed to do so.

Law, Virtual Reality, and Augmented Reality

Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) will be widely used for social and commercial purposes. AR and VR will sometimes be used to harm others, testing the limits of criminal, civil, and constitutional law.

The Many Revolutions of Carpenter

The Supreme Court’s opinion in Carpenter v. United States is revolutionary. The Supreme Court recognizes that Fourth Amendment privacy rights were intended to preserve a society free of constant surveillance.

The First Amendment in the Second Gilded Age

Social media firms give users freedom of speech in exchange for access to personal data. The digital public sphere depends on the business models of firms like Google and Twitter.

Fixing Social Media's Grand Bargain

Social media firms like Facebook offer services for free in exchange for data from end users, using the data to sell advertising. This bargain encourages social media firms and advertisers to manipulate users.

Free Speech is a Triangle

Increasingly, nation-states censor speakers by co-opting the expertise of internet-based businesses like Google. Defending free speech means resisting this type of censorship, and protecting users from manipulative uses of data.

Networked Press Freedom: Creating Infrastructures for a Public Right to Hear

Freedom of the press is defined mainly as journalistic freedom from constraints. Freedom of the press should be reconceived to include positive rights, such as the right of the public to hear.

Media as Data Extraction: Towards a New Map of a Transformed Communications Field

Increasingly, media narratives are associated with consumer data collection. Media is becoming more closely linked to economic transactions and structures.

Age Discrimination by Platforms 

In future, older workers will constitute a larger proportion of the population. Many digital platforms hinder the efforts of older people to find employment.