Big Tech monopolies create algorithmic misinformation streams that are actively destabilizing American democracy

B. Big Tech trademarks and U.S. consumer privacy concerns Consumers are subjected to a high degree of privacy invasion by Big Tech, which allows for “persistent collection and misuse of consumer data.”142 Because there are no other widely available online platforms accessible to consumers, Big Tech has the power to offer less privacy protection than they otherwise would in a free and competitive market.143 This permits Big Tech to lower the quality of services and goods by simultaneously monetizing and selling consumer data to third parties.144 Big Tech monopoly power harms U.S. democracy because consumers do not know what type of data is being collected or how data is being stored by Big Tech.145 For example, Facebook cements its market dominance by not only vigorously enforcing its trademark rights against perceived competitors, but also by actively acquiring intellectual property rights of its significant competitors.146 By acquiring its competitors, Facebook is able to impose high switching costs to its consumers, effectively retaining a vast majority of its billions of users.147 Because Facebook products are used by their users every day, Facebook is able to gather a significant amount of personal information about their users.148 Facebook monetizes this massive trove of information by selling its users’ information to third party advertisers, generally selling the information to the highest bidder. This dramatically harms the experience of Facebook’s users since the user is just as likely to see a sponsored ad as a post from their family or friend.

Despite this deteriorated service, Facebook users are still unlikely to change providers because (1) there are no readily available alternatives, and (2) the high switching cost imposed by Facebook oftentimes mean severing ties with other applications, such as Spotify.149 Facebook’s dominance in the social networking market is harmful to democracy because Facebook can obstruct the flow of accurate information. A democracy depends not only on free speech, but informed information. No opinion can be informed unless the facts which substantiate that opinion are true. Facebook’s trademark recognition misleads users into believing Facebook provides a superior product. Part of the consumer assumption is that the information found on Facebook is accurate. Unfortunately, much of the information which circulates on Facebook is false or misleading in nature and contributes to false discourse of the state of the nation.150 Exploitive third parties ranging from snake-oil salesmen to nefarious foreign governments such as China and Russia have attempted, with great success, to exploit Facebook’s lax content control to influence the discourse of our democracy. By allowing third parties to influence the opinions of virtually all Americans, Facebook’s lax content control poses significant challenges to a free and open democracy as the flow of false information undermines the population’s faith in their elected officials and therefore, the democratic process.