Do We Need a National I-Media Commission?
January 25, 2019
In an era of accelerating technological and business change, the question is whether the existing regulatory institutions fit the changing environment. The pressure points include:
- New types of media and applications, in particular the Internet, online video, apps, and the Internet of Things
- The global reach of providers
- Emerging issues such as:
- Data privacy and security
- Social media control of usage
- Algorithms in the individualization of content, pricing, and advertising
- Anonymity and cryptography
- Non-discrimination by networks and platforms
- Big data and marketing practices
- Media trade barriers
Dealing with such issues can be done in several ways:
- A libertarian regime with vanishing regulation.
- Status quo regulation, with issues dealt with by existing government agencies
- Creation of new single-issue agencies for new issues, such as a Federal Privacy Commission along the European model.
- A converged agency to cover the emerging issues of the wider electronic information sector.
Each of these approaches has shortcomings such as overlaps, gaps, single-issue perspectives, lack of expertise, and lack of coordination. Others may run counter to basic policy principles of Western democracies.
The purpose of the conference was to:
- Identify new types of issues,
- What regulatory structure—if any—to deal with them?
Speakers included:
- Eli Noam, Columbia University
- Thomas Hazlett, Clemson University
- Matthias Kurth, Cable Europe
- Stephen Messer and Jan Foo, Collective[i]
- Megan Stiffel, Public Knowledge
- Amie Stepanovich, AccessNow
- Eric Null, Open Technology Institute
- Henning Schulzrinne, Columbia University
- Jason Healey, SIPA, Columbia University
- Bernard Benhamou, Institute for Digital Sovereignty o Robert Cohen, Economic Strategy Institute
- Andrew Tutt, Arnold & Porter
- Andrew Reinsdorf, AT&T
- Howard Homonoff, Homonoff Media
- Michael Nelson, Cloudflare
- Harold Furchtgott-Roth, Hudson Institute
- Reed Hundt, Former FCC Chairman
- Robert Pepper, Facebook