Ending Our Click-Bait Culture: Why Progressives Must Break the Power of Facebook and Google

This memo briefly explains how Facebook and Google have come to dominate modern communications networks, what that means for American democracy, and how to fix it.

Reducing Google and Facebook’s dominance means changing the rules and laws that enable their business model, and to bring anti-monopoly enforcement actions to reduce their scale and scope. One way to start is through structural separations: for instance, splitting out Google’s general search from mapping, Android, and YouTube. But that can’t be the end. To turn these platforms into safe, neutral networks for communication, policymakers must focus on regulating advertising practices, and in particular on the dangers inherent in targeted advertising.Ultimately, that means communications networks like Facebook and Google should lose their liability protections under Section 230 if they profit from advertising.