By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 4-6-21
Conservative Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has made it pretty clear he would consider applying common carrier regulations to dominant edge providers like Google and Facebook.
“There is a fair argument that some digital platforms are sufficiently akin to common carriers or places of accommodation to be regulated in this manner,” wrote Thomas this week. “The analogy to common carriers is even clearer for digital platforms that have dominant market share.”
Historically, it was ISPs being branded the gatekeepers and potential suppressors of online speech, in that case access that was equated with speech. But social media companies, with dominant market shares and revenues rivaling the GDP of many countries, and the ability to control access to their dominant platforms, are now under the magnifying glass as never before. » Read More