Reason Webinar: Robert Atkinson and Thomas Hazlett on big tech’s power, social media regulation, FTC antitrust lawsuits, and more
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Reason Webinar: Robert Atkinson and Thomas Hazlett on big tech’s power, social media regulation, FTC antitrust lawsuits, and more

We discuss whether tech companies have become too big and powerful and what tech-related policies and regulations most need to be changed.

As both political parties call for increased regulation of big tech, social media, and artificial intelligence, Reason Foundation spoke with Information Technology and Innovation Foundation President Robert Atkinson and Thomas Hazlett, a professor of economics at Clemson University and former chief economist of the Federal Communications Commission.

We discuss whether tech companies have become too big and powerful, if the Federal Trade Commission’s antitrust interventions help or hurt consumers, how to best analyze market competition and power in social media and tech sectors, and what tech-related policies and regulations most need to be changed.

More background on the panelists is below.

This webinar was recorded on July 25, 2023.

Robert D. Atkinson is the founder and president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation. President Bill Clinton appointed Atkinson to the Commission on Workers, Communities, and Economic Change in the New Economy and was appointed to other positions in the presidential administrations of George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump.

Thomas Hazlett is the Hugh H. Macaulay Endowed Professor of Economics at Clemson University, specializing in the information economy. Hazlett is a former chief economist of the Federal Communications Commission.

Adrian Moore is vice president of policy at Reason Foundation, where he leads Reason’s policy implementation efforts with federal, state, and local leaders and conducts his research on government and regulatory reform, technology, transportation, privatization, and more.