🚨Antitrust & digital competition are in the news almost daily – from decisions issued in cases against Google search and ad tech to DMA enforcement actions involving Apple and Meta and new private litigation in multiple jurisdictions. 👇

We built the simplest possible social media platform. No algorithms. No ads. Just LLM agents posting and following. It still became a polarization machine. Then we tried six interventions to fix social media. The results were… not what we expected. arxiv.org/abs/2508.03385

🚨New op-ed in @newsweek.com by KGI’s @alissacooper.bsky.social and Eric Rescorla: Yes, Chrome really *can* survive without Google. This article breaks down how the proposed Chrome divestiture as part of the US v. Google search antitrust case is technically feasible www.newsweek.com/yes-chrome-r...

🚨NEW Report: The Technical Feasibility of Divesting Google Chrome 🚨 Our report shows a Google Chrome divestiture is technically feasible and offers an engineering assessment of what it would take to separate Chrome from Google – and succeed: kgi.georgetown.edu/research-and... #USvGoogle

Former AG Barr: "This isn’t a case in which a company has gotten power over the production of vacuum cleaners. Google’s dominance allows it to operate as a gateway to the internet, the digital world through which Americans engage in almost all interactions."

The #USvGoogle remedies trial is about to start! Anyone can dial in to Judge Mehta's courtroom to listen the opening statements 👀 www.dcd.uscourts.gov/public-acces...

what privacy? how would it degrade quality? and what about the fact that Google is already rife with ad fraud?

Very bad that mainstream media keeps accepting the premise the Trump admin is “cracking down on antisemitism”. Everyone knows none of this has anything to do with “antisemitism” it has to do with snuffing out any dissent over Israel’s genocide in Gaza and purging brown people from society

Wrapping up this live tweet. this guy is tired #StiglerAntitrust2025

UChicago's Randy Picker calls @matthewstoller.bsky.social a "smart entrant" into the news media market. Anti-monopoly is good attentional business strategy 💵 #StiglerAntitrust25

@competitionprof.bsky.social asks - would George Stigler approve of regulating big tech? See Stigler's foundational paper 👇 www.jstor.org/stable/3003160 #StiglerAntitrust25

These disclosures are indeed an opportunity for a humble brag @matthewstoller.bsky.social #StiglerAntitrust25

Europe right now, according to this panel #StiglerAntitrust25 😥

"I would like to inject a dose of realism into these assessments. Are we winning in Europe? Absolutely not...The capacity of European institutions to move against these digital giants is zero." - @cristinacaffarra.bsky.social on the DMA and DSA #StiglerAntitrust25

Reading the Stigler report on digital platforms while in undergrad at UChicago was a huge reason why I ended up being interested in this field *the nostalgia is real* #StiglerAntitrust25

A question was just asked about "expert hot tubs" in antitrust. @promarket.bsky.social we need expert hot tubs at the next Stigler conference 🤽‍♂️

Finding out that all empirical research is bunk serves to justify my decision to become a legal scholars. Thanks John Ioannidis 😋 #StiglerAntitrust25

John Ioannidis on improving trust in academic research: "What is happening is segmentation of trust. There are many visible examples of people losing trust, but there are others who are pragmatic about making incremental improvements." #StiglerAntitrust25

John Ionnadis is giving a talk on why most published academic research is bunk #StiglerAntitrust25

Took a break to write up something, now we're back to liveskeeting this thing #StiglerAntitrust25 @promarket.bsky.social can't believe yall aren't paying me for this

Summary of the second day's first panel at #StiglerAntitrust25 with @zingales.bsky.social and @superwuster.bsky.social: "With great power comes greater responsibility [for digital platforms]" 🕸️🕷️

"The problem with concentration is that we lose our freedom. This is something my colleagues obsessed with the consumer welfare standard don't understand." - @zingales.bsky.social

@superwuster.bsky.social tentatively calls for an end to general speech platforms like Facebook and Twitter. More specialized, decentralized options like Reddit and Mastodon may be better for the quality of public discourse #StiglerAntitrust25

@superwuster.bsky.social starts off the second day of #StiglerAntitrust25 discussing the early techno-optimist days of the internet. He highlights two papers echoing these ideas. www.jstor.org/stable/797032 direct.mit.edu/books/book/2...

Chair Ferguson on online child safety: “The most important thing government can do is interposing parents back between children and social media.”’ #StiglerAntitrust25

"When social media companies practice censorship, they inflict harm not just on those users whose opinions are excluded... but also on any user who is attracted to the platform because it facilitates a genuine marketplace of ideas." FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson at #StiglerAntitrust25

FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson at #StiglerAntitrust25: Cooridnated decisions to take down content between platforms is potential evidence of collusion and therefore a basis for antitrust investigation

The policy panel has been dominated by discussion about whether taking down content is a consumer harm and, if it is, what policy and antitrust can do about it #StiglerAntitrust25

Statement from an attendee: "When people say monopoly, I think what people mean is 'a big firm I don't like'. There appears to be competition between platforms that are real, so then I have to ask - what is the harm being done?" #StiglerAntitrust25

@ddayen.bsky.social asks the Mercatus Center's Martin Gurri about the Trump Administration's censorship efforts. He replies: "I won't pass judgment on what the Trump Administration is doing. I don't understand what they're doing" #StiglerAntitrust25

what the fuck

What is the "marketplace of ideas"? The #StiglerAntitrust25 conference purports to study how economic concentration affects it. One speaker just said that the marketplace of ideas is a poor metaphor for digital technology, masking a "wildly dynamic system" that is rapidly evolving

"Law is not a neutral actor. Through action and inaction, it plays a central role in the marketplace of ideas." - Madhavi Singh, Yale Thurmond Arnold Project #StiglerAntitrust2025

Spicy moment between @matthewstoller.bsky.social and @paulohm.bsky.social at #StiglerAntitrust25: Matt: "Take the question seriously" Paul: "Should I answer it in a British accent?" 🥸🥸

Key quote of the day at #StiglerAntitrust25: "If you've spent $500 billion on an LLM and it's not everywhere, then you've set $500 billion on fire for super Clippy" - @matthewstoller.bsky.social 😆😆

If it crosses the U.S. border illegally, it's our job to STOP IT. • Parsley • Sage • Rosemary • Thyme

Key quote from the panel on AI: "The #1 takeaway for AI is it's astonishing how LLMs can be changed with little effort and time. These things may be the most malleable artifacts of the industrialized world." - @paulohm.bsky.social Translation: compliance with AI regulation will be EASY

"I really applaud the Stigler Center on the way they're leaning into these disclosures" - @paulohm.bsky.social RETWEET. these disclosures are needed so much fun #StiglerAntitrust25

These disclosures are an excellent way to flex on all your resume items, let's keep 'em coming @promarket.bsky.social

"What's really great about KGI's report is that it put together the best scientific evidence available on algorithms." - @whiskeyocelot.bsky.social Yesssss that's what we like to hear 😤 you can check out KGI's Better Feeds report here 👇 kgi.georgetown.edu/research-and... #StiglerAntitrust25

Some real heavy hitters speaking on the #StiglerAntitrust25 panel about algorithms and AI: @juliaangwin.com, @whiskeyocelot.bsky.social, @jatucker.bsky.social, and Georgetown's own @paulohm.bsky.social 👀👀 Tune in!

"The EU institutions acted on facts that we can all plainly see in our daily lives, which is that these platforms have systemic impacts, not only individualized ones." @alissacooper.bsky.social (@knightgtown.bsky.social) at #StiglerAntitrust25

I met @promarket.bsky.social's social media person, and she's very chill. Killing it with #StiglerAntitrust25's socials (they'd be even better if she reposted me more...)

"Article 40(12) of the DSA is magical for research: it doesn't involve gatekeepers. Anyone who is interested in public content can go look at it." - @daphnek.bsky.social Article 40(12) is the provision that protects research using public data: www.eu-digital-services-act.com/Digital_Serv...

Spicy moment at #StiglerAntitrust25: @daphnek.bsky.social and @jvh.bsky.social mention that there is debate about whether the DSA enables the EU to censor content Then @alexandrageese.bsky.social, an MEP who helped write the DSA, pushes back, asking who is arguing that it enables censorship

The panel on the DSA at #StiglerAntitrust25 reinforces a common refrain about European tech policy: that laws like the DSA are very young and their long-term impacts will take time to observe and emerge

"The signature accomplishment of the DSA thus far is that the EU acted on facts we see plainly in our daily lives: that platforms have systemic risks on society...Thinking about things systemically acknowledges the feedback loops that are inherent in these systems" - @alissacooper.bsky.social

"There is a constellation of actors who have different roles and responsibilities in the DSA: platforms must set up accountability infrastructure; enforcers must clarify where we need meat on the bones..."

KGI's @alissacooper.bsky.social on the DSA: "This law is an opportunity to move policy away from conversations around content to a place where we apply science and rigorous, empirical analysis to understand the ways platforms affect democracy and systemic risks." #StiglerAntitrust25

KGI's @alissacooper.bsky.social is dropping bars about the Digital Services Act at #StiglerAntitrust25 rn!! Tune in 🚨🚨