Public Utility Regulation

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i worry that the anti trust discourse, being too focused on competition and the competitive lens, is distracting from these kind of more common space or public solutions to the problem. The framework of public utilities gives you one important way to think about how platforms could be organized. For me, the real level at which it's best to think about this is on the level of the municipality. Some of these municipal alternatives are really good because they start to show you that you can create public benefit from the tech.

Paris Marx is joined by James Muldoon to discuss his vision for platform socialism and the different ways we could reorganize platforms to serve the public good over corporate profit.

James Muldoon is the author of Platform Socialism: How to Reclaim our Digital Future from Big Tech. He’s also a senior lecturer at the University of Exeter and the Head of Digital Research at Autonomy. Follow James on Twitter at @james_muldoon_.

Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter, and support the show on Patreon.

Find out more about Harbinger Media Network at harbingermedianetwork.com.

Also mentioned in this episode:

James wrote about why web3 won’t save the internet.
Paris wrote about what’s wrong with discourses about decentralization and why we should nationalize Amazon.
Francesca Bria was interviewed by Crypto Syllabus about web3, decentralization, and her experience with municipal tech projects.
Facebook’s Project Amplify ensured users saw positive stories about the company.
Antonio Negri and Dalla Costa were among the Italian Autonomist Marxists thinking about the social factory. Karl Marx wrote about the concept of surplus value.
G.D.H. Cole wrote about guild socialism. James also mentions the work of Otto Neurath.