The internet was built on the techno-libertarian ideology that “information wants to be free,” and that ideology has played a prominent role in academic and policy debates about regulating the internet and the big technology companies that dominate it. Techno-libertarian ideology has generated a constellation of claims about tech and regulation—from the suggestion that regulation will stifle innovation in the complex, dynamic tech sector, to the assertion that the large platform companies are literally not regulable. This article explores how much traction such claims and ideologies have in the broader public discourse about big tech and regulation.
The battle over rules governing 5.9 GHz airwaves offers important lessons in both the creation of property rights and applied public choice. This article considers the costly, delay-intensive and ad hoc policy process by the FCC which begs for further development of auction mechanisms to rationalize alternative rights assignments.
Video games have aggressively grown both commercially and artistically as a medium. In spite of the massive external economic benefits this industry generates, there are still many vocal opponents to Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association which extended unqualified First Amendment protection to video games. This article proposes that, now that a decade has passed, Justice Antonin Scalia’s majority opinion in Brown has proven its status as sound legal precedent. The author argues focus should be put on more pressing First Amendment technological problems.