Publications
Next TV’s John Eggerton reports on the Banning Microtargeted Political Ads Act, proposed by Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.), which will work to prohibit varying platforms, sites and ad networks from using data-driven political ads that include disinformation and/or misinformation.
Read MoreWelcome to The Corner. In this issue, we examine some of the dangers of the recently approved Schwab-TD Ameritrade merger, address the president’s executive order on Section 230, and highlight our recent conference discussing worker power.
Read MoreBloomberg quotes Barry Lynn, executive director of Open Markets, on rising concentration in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Read MoreBrandi Collins-Dexter of Color of Change says deleting your Facebook account isn’t enough—the company must be pressured at the top. And right-wing board members “shows you what their intentions really are.”
Read MoreOpen Markets Legal Director, Sandeep Vaheesan, published an op-ed in Harvard Law Review on June 9, 2020, discussing the need to overcome the most recent antitrust suit brought about in NCAA college basketball in the Ninth Circuit court.
Read MoreOpen Markets Institute policy analyst, Daniel Hanley, published an academic article where he analyzes the ways in which big tech companies, including Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple and Microsoft, engage in anti-competitive behavior as a means of retaining their users — essentially reducing the options for users to seek business elsewhere.
Read MoreWe grieve with the many families and communities who have lost loved ones to anti-Black violence. And we join Black organizers, leaders, and activists in solidarity since the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor by police.
Read MoreThe Open Markets Institute has long held that a deeply flawed regulatory environment in the United States has allowed Google, Facebook, and other platforms to acquire a dangerous concentration of control over how Americans exchange ideas, opinions, and news. Moreover, the profits of these corporations are based in large part on building user “engagement” through false and inflammatory content while starving trustworthy and accountable information sources of ad revenue.
Read MoreWelcome to The Corner. In this issue, we discuss our response to the criticisms regarding a merger ban during the COVID-19 pandemic, commend newly proposed bills to ban micro-targeting, and highlight the release of professor John Kwoka’s latest book.
Read MorePYMNTS reports on how Tech Giants, including Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple and Microsoft, have 19 M&A deals in process in spite of COVID-19’s effect on the economy. “These companies are already extraordinarily powerful, but they’re well-positioned to emerge as the biggest winners of COVID-19 unless some legislative action is taken,” said Sandeep Vaheesan, OMI’s legal director.
Read MoreFinancial Times’ Miles Kruppa and James Fontanella-Khan report on the increase of mergers and acquisitions among big tech companies and start-up businesses, further consolidating their power in the marketplace. “These companies are already extraordinarily powerful, but they’re well positioned to emerge as the biggest winners of COVID-19 unless some legislative action is taken,” said Sandeep Vaheesan, OMI’s legal director.
Read MoreThe bills proposed by both Rep. Cicilline and Rep. Eshoo are critical first steps to preserving the integrity of our elections and stopping the manipulation of American voters. As I previously testified, Facebook and Google make a lot of money by renting out their manipulation machines to anyone who pays. These platforms surveil their users and then allow disinformation agents to target propaganda at users based on comprehensive and intimate data profiles.
Read MoreOpen Markets Institute, The American Prospect, United for Respect, and Change to Win, deep dive on how antitrust, labor law and policy, can be used to promote a pro-worker anti-monopoly agenda.
Read MoreA new bill from Elizabeth Warren and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez strikes at the myths behind mergers.
In a webinar organized by COSAL and Rust Consulting and moderated by Hal Singer, Sandeep Vaheesan, along with OMI Academic Advisory Board Member Sanjukta Paul and Marshall Steinbaum, discussed how weak anti-merger law contributed to the loss of critical reserve capacity in health care and other sectors.
Read MoreWelcome to The Corner. In this issue, we discuss a new report that Amazon is exploiting its gatekeeper position to take other companies’ businesses, and we discuss the Open Markets proposal to use anti-monopoly law to address the COVID-19 crisis within America’s dangerously consolidated meatpacking industry.
Read MoreForbes’ contributor Rebecca Bellan reports on The American Edge Project, an advocacy group that Facebook helped launch in an effort to frame technological innovators as “an essential part of the U.S. economic health, national security and individual freedoms.”
Read MoreHuffPost’s Zach Carter reports on the effort led by the American Economic Liberties Project and nine other organizations, including Open Markets, prompting the Federal Reserve to ban bailout funding for M&A activity.
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