From Online Platforms to Digital Monopolies

Jonas C.L. Valente is a communications professor and an associate researcher at Communications Policy Laboratory at Communications Faculty in University of Brasília, Brazil. He has published books and papers about the Internet, media regulation, digital technologies, digital rights and free speech.

• AcknowledgmentsList of Figures and TablesIntroduction1 About Technology1 Artefact and Technological Systems2 Developing Artefacts and Technological Systems3 Society and Technology4 Technology and Society5 Summary: The Technological Regulation Approach6 Values Base to Analyse Technology under Capitalism2 Technology and Capitalist Development1 Technology and the Economic Sphere2 Technology and the Political–Institutional Sphere3 Technology and the Cultural Sphere3 Information and Communication Technologies and Neoliberalism1 Context: The 1970s Crisis, Neoliberalism and ICT S2 Technology and the Economic Sphere: ICT S and Their Impacts on the Economy3 Impacts on Labour Relations4 Impacts on Competition Dynamics4 The Technological Paradigm of Information and Communications Technologies1 Structural Technologies: The Internet2 Infrastructure: High-Speed Data Networks (Broadband)3 Core Input: Microprocessors4 Carrier Branch: Computers5 Emerging Technologies: Big Data, Algorithms and Artificial Intelligence5 Digital Platforms1 Definitions2 Characteristics3 Typology of Digital Platforms4 Production Process and Labour Relations5 Competition on Platforms5.1  Business Models5.2  Market Structure5.3  Competitive Strategies6 Digital Monopolies7 Legislation and the Debate on Legal Regulation6 Google1 General Technological Trajectory2 Rules3 Ownership, Control and Management Structure4 Production Process5 Competitive Performance6 System Components and Technical Resources6.1  Other Bets7 Dissemination8 Appropriation9 Relationship with the Values Base9.1  Rights Promotion and GuaranteesDamages and Violation of Rights10 The Technological System’s Impact on Society11 Analytical Overview: Google and the Fight For Online Information Control7 Facebook1 General Technological Trajectory2 Rules3 Ownership, Control and Management Structure4 Production Process5 Competitive Performance6 System Components and Technical Resources6.1  Primary Technological System: Facebook6.1.1 Information (Newsfeed and Timeline)6.1.2 Connections (Friends, Groups, Pages and Events)6.1.3 Transactions6.1.4 Platform6.2  Secondary Subsystems7 Dissemination8 Appropriation9 Relationship with the Values Base9.1  Rights, Promotion and Guarantees9.2  Damages and Violation of Rights10 The Technological System’s Impact on Society11 Analytical Overview: Facebook and the Fight for Online Information Control8 Final ConsiderationsReferencesIndex