The Record

Cooperation between companies developing artificial intelligence (AI) can help them create AI systems that are safe, secure, and with broadly shared benefits. Researchers have proposed a range of cooperation strategies, ranging from redistributing “windfall” profits to assistance to address the harmful dynamics of a competitive race for technological superiority.

Cyber risk insurance coverage has become an increasingly vital tool permitting both public and private-sector organizations to mitigate an array of cyber risks, including the prevalent issue of ransomware. However, despite the relatively rapid uptake of these policies, a series of issues and barriers emerged. Litigation has centered on issues ranging from what constitutes “covered computer systems” as many employees are working from home, to questions of negligence.

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.

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.

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.