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How to save democracy from technology

MS&E Prof. Ashish Goel and colleagues investigate the influence of large digital platforms and suggest policies aimed at curbing their influence.
Portrait of Prof. Ashish Goel juxtaposed next to the cover of an academic report.

The internet economy has produced digital platforms of enormous economic and social significance.

These platforms—specifically, Google, Facebook, Amazon, Twitter, and Apple—now play central roles in how millions of Americans obtain information, spend their money, communicate with fellow citizens, and earn their livelihoods.

The Program on Democracy and the Internet at Stanford University convened a working group in January 2020 to consider the scale, scope, and power exhibited by the digital platforms, study the potential harms they cause, and, if appropriate, recommend remedial policies. MS&E Professor Ashish Goel was a member of the working group and a co-author of its report along with political scientist Francis Fukuyama and colleagues.

Foreign Affairs also published this article on the group's work.

And Promarket, a publication of the Stigler Center for the Study of the Economy and the State at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, published this Q&A-style interview with Fukuyama about the report.