Senator Al Franken discusses the power of Big Tech, net neutrality, monopoly, and our democracy.

We need to talk about data in digital advertising and how it influences competition and encourages a disregard for Americans’ privacy. We need to better understand how past deals – Google’s purchases of DoubleClick and Waze or Facebook’s acquisitions of WhatsApp and Instagram, for example – have impacted consumers’ privacy and big tech’s ability to establish barriers to entry for emerging rivals.

And finally, we desperately need to conduct vigorous oversight – in the form of investigations and hearings – to fully understand current practices and the potential for harm. We must work together to make this happen.

Sen. Al Franken delivers a keynote address on these ideas and the other outsized roles that major tech companies play in so many aspects of our lives.

Guests:

Segment 1

• Former U.S. Senator Al Franken, Represented Minnesota in the U.S. Senate from 2009 to 2018

• Barry Lynn, Executive Director, Open Markets Institute

Segment 2

• Craig Aaron, Leader of Free Press and Free Press Action since 2011

• Tim Wu, Contributing opinion writer, The New York Times

• Brandi Collins-Dexter, Senior Campaign Director, Color of Change

Segment 3

• Franklin Foer, Staff writer at The Atlantic and former editor of The New Republic

• Roger McNamee, Managing Director, Elevation Partners

• K. Sabeel Rahman, Author of Democracy Against Domination, visiting professor of law at Harvard Law School, and former fellow at New America

• Christine Rosen, Editor at The New Atlantis

• Lina Khan, Director of Legal Policy, Open Markets Institute

Relevant Readings: 

On Net Neutrality

• Net Neutrality: Why Artists and Activists Can’t Afford to Lose It W. Kamau Bell, The New York Times

• Trump FCC’s Plan to End Net Neutrality Rests on Alternative Facts and Empty Promises Craig Aaron, The American Prospect

• Remarks of FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn Delivered Nov. 1 at The Voices for Internet Freedom Coalition

On Platform Monopoly

• Amazon Bites Off Even More Monopoly Power Lina Khan, The New York Times

• Amazon Bites Off Even More Monopoly Power Lina Khan, The New York Times

• How to stop Google and Facebook from becoming even more powerful Barry Lynn & Matt Stoller, The Guardian

• One idea for regulating Google and Facebook’s control over content David McCabe, Axios

• ‘Neutrality’ for Thee, but Not for Google, Facebook and Amazon
  Ev Ehrlich, The Wall Street Journal

• Tech Giants and Civic Power Martin Moore, Kings College London

• Facebook’s Onavo Gives Social-Media Firm Inside Peek at Rivals’

On Platform Monopoly and the 2016 election

• If Mark Zuckerberg wants forgiveness, he’s going to need to come clean first Roger McNamee, USA Today

• How Twitter Killed the First Amendment Tim Wu, The New York Times