The Record

The Essential Facilities Doctrine in the Digital Economy: Dispelling Persistent Myths

The antitrust “essential facilities” doctrine is reawakening. After decades of rejection and decline, the doctrine’s approach of granting access rights to facilities for which there is no reasonable alternative in the market has received several high-profile endorsements across the political spectrum. While courts have mainly applied the doctrine to physical infrastructure, its potential now lies in addressing the gatekeeping power of online platforms.

In a New Light: Social Media Governance Reconsidered

Our aim for this special issue is to bring a few novel approaches to platform governance which can be applicable to social media and other online platforms. The different scholars included in this issue approach social media governance through different lenses, and sometimes use different terminology (e.g., “platforms” vs. “technology firms” vs. “social media companies”). Yet the common thread is the importance of exploring new ideas for managing the social impact, good and bad, that these large players have in our society.

Algorithms and Economic Justice: A Taxonomy of Harms and a Path Forward for the Federal Trade Commission

As an FTC Commissioner, I aim to promote economic and social justice through consumer protection and competition law and policy. In recent years, algorithmic decision-making has produced biased, discriminatory, and otherwise problematic outcomes in some of the most important areas of the American economy. This article describes harms caused by algorithmic decision-making in the high-stakes spheres of employment, credit, health care, and housing, which profoundly shape the lives of individuals.

Deepfakes and Other Non-Testimonial Falsehoods: When is Belief Manipulation (Not) First Amendment Speech?

Artificial Intelligence & Innovation: The End of Patent Law as We Know It