#Jeff jarvis full#
#Jeff jarvis code#

I know this because in my university center, I spent years trying to convince publishers to change their product and business strategies to prepare for this day. Incumbent publishers, on the other hand, are stuck without their own first-party data or innovation. In the United States, GoogleвЂ™s recent announcement that it will forego ad targeting on the web based on third-party data was applauded by privacy advocates who have demonized web cookies as so-called вЂњsurveillance capitalism.вЂќ But this again amounts to regulatory capture as Google itself has plentiful first-party data about consumer behavior as well as the resources and technical means to innovate in advertising. I agree with Jarvis that laws that compel platforms to assess the truth of what they post are unworkable, and would further advantage large platforms. You cannot easily define or regulate truth. Similarly, India is enacting regulationВ that would require platforms to take down speech that is false or threatens national unity. In addition, Singapore instituted a fake-news law, which puts internet companies in the unwanted position of being arbiters of truth. In Europe, various changes to copyright law - GermanyвЂ™s Leistungsschutzrecht, SpainвЂ™s link tax, the EUвЂ™s Articles 15 and 17 of the its Directive on Copyright - amount to regulatory capture, for the large internet companies can afford compliance but I have spoken with smaller competitors for whom the expense and effort are crippling. I agree with Jarvis that this is the wrong approach. The result is to favor large news organizations and make the Web unworkable. The intent of the law is to support news organizations. For a short time, Facebook removed all news site links, most likely to show everyone how bad that alternative might look. I regret that in the end, Google and Facebook succumbed to what I see as corporate and political blackmail.ДЄustraliaвЂ™s attempt at regulation would charge companies like Google and Facebook for linking to news sites.

#Jeff jarvis code#

The Australian code amounts to a link tax - for those companies that link to news are required to pay for news - and Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the web, testifiedВ to Australian legislators that such a precedent would вЂњmake the web unworkable around the world.вЂќ It would break the internet. Small news startups that might compete with the powerful incumbents receive no protection or support in the law. and the Nine Network will receive 90 percent of the money being paid by Google and Facebook, both of which are now in the position to decide which news organizations should receive support. The net result, according to the news site Crikey, is that the countryвЂ™s existing media duopoly of News Corp. It is worthwhile to examine the effects of internet regulation elsewhere as it is debated here.ДЄ major theme of JarvisвЂ™s argument is that big companies can bear the burden of regulation, and therefore regulation tends to favor big companies, both tech companies and well-funded news conglomerates.Д¬onsider, for example, AustraliaвЂ™s media code. I write to the committee to express my concern about often well-intentioned but ill-conceived internet regulation, which could have deleterious effects on freedom of expression which tends to protect incumbent media and technology companies at the expense of innovation and competition and whose unintended consequence is frequently to grant internet platforms yet greater power. Statement to the Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust

Below are relevant excerpts with my commentary.

#Jeff jarvis full#

You can read the full text of JarvisвЂ™s letter on his blog here. Jarvis shows how ill-considered regulation will have unintended consequences While I have argued for regulating big tech platforms, he makes good points about the dangers of ill-considered regulations. Today, he wrote a letter to Congress regarding its hearings on Internet regulation. I have a great deal of respect for Jeff Jarvis, the esteemed author and professor from the CUNY/Newmark School of Journalism.