Tech Policy Press: The Internet Beyond Social Media Thought-Robber Barons

My new article, "The Internet Beyond Social Media Thought-Robber Barons," was published in?Tech Policy Press?on 4/22/21.?

• It is now apparent that social media is dangerous for democracy, but few have recognized a simple twist that can put us back on track.??
• A surgical restructuring -- an "unbundling" -- to an open market strategy that shifts control over our feeds to the users they serve -- is the only practical way to limit the harms and enable the full benefits of social media?

I summarize and contrast these proposals:

• Most prominently in?Foreign Affairs?and the?Wall Street Journal?by Francis Fukayama, Barak Richman, Ashish Goel, and others in the report of the Stanford Working Group on Platform Scale.
• Independently by Stephen Wolfram, Mike Masnick, and me.
• And with what might become important real-world traction in the exploratory Bluesky initiative by Jack Dorsey at Twitter.

The article covers new ground in presenting a concrete vision of what an open market in filtering services might?enable --?how this can bring individual and social purpose back to social media, to?not only protect, but systematically enhance democracy, and how that can augment human wisdom and social interaction?more broadly. That vision should be of interest to thoughtful citizens as well as policy professionals.

Continuing updates, including added valuable references, are on my blog.