Regulating Big Tech

The course Regulating Big Tech deals with the regulation of big technology corporations, as well as their underpinning role and commercial activity surrounding Internet governance. This course takes big tech companies such as Google, Facebook/Meta, Uber, TikTok as a central point, while exploring the context of their development. This is done by mapping the past, present and future of the Internet, to understand the business incentives of early Internet business models and explore how the availability of big data, breakthroughs in machine learning and regulatory backlogs have led to today’s Internet giants. The big tech companies covered in this course reflect different ages of the Internet:

• web 1.0 – the static Internet with the early promises of e-commerce and advertising (e.g. eBay, Google);
• web 2.0 – the centralized Internet and its data industries such as marketplaces (e.g. Amazon but also dark web marketplaces), social media (e.g. Facebook/Meta, YouTube) or the sharing economy (e.g. Uber);
• web 3.0 – the decentralized Internet and the metaverses (e.g. Decentraland and Ethereum).

The various ages of the Internet have attracted highly complex legal discussions. In this course, we will put particular emphasis on a number of thematic multidisciplinary areas such as:

• State and self-governance mechanisms, infrastructures and techniques;
• Tensions between competing rights, values and principles;
• Fairness, justice and democracy on digital markets;
• Content monetization and moderation.

From a legal perspective, the course explores the interaction of consumer protection, intermediary liability, fundamental rights, access to justice and intellectual property law. In addition to this, computer science and social science insights will be addressed, to better understand the technologies used by big tech companies as well as consumer perception and behaviour on digital markets.

During the lectures, a general introduction to specific themes will be given. During the working groups, students focus on a particular case study, where they will have to identify digital harms arising out of specific technologies, and provide creative approaches to curtailing them. Case studies have a strong connection to current events. In general, students are expected to actively contribute to the course and critically reflect to the suggested material, in order to best engage in the discussions. In learning about these topics, students will make use of legal texts (conventions, laws, case law) and academic articles, but also of popular articles, press releases and their own critical analysis of the subject.

Academic context

The course Regulating Big Tech is a multidisciplinary Internet law course, which means that it deals with questions of law, but has a connection to computer science (introduction to machine learning and cryptography) and social science (consumer behavior, public policy) as well. These connections are reflected in the ‘perspectives’ that are central to this course and which are used to look at the problems arising out of technology as well as the solutions necessary to ensure market health and democracy in a variety of ways. Apart from that, the course has a clear international focus due to the subject matter and the playing field on which these corporations operate, and a particular European perspective with respect to upcoming regulatory reforms.

Societal relevance

Because the course Regulating Big Tech explicitly builds on current events, the societal relevance of this course is a given. Theories learned during the weekly lectures are applied and contextualized immediately during the working groups, in which current events are leading. In doing so, students make use of academic texts to shape their thinking about societal issues.

Skills
The course Regulating Big Tech stimulates and develops the following particular set of skills.

General analytical skills

With its focus on analyzing and discussing current events in the working groups, students are stimulated to find, process and apply different sources quickly to a given case study. Students trained to quickly sort through different materials, distill important information and present well rounded arguments.

Legal analytical skills

The course focuses on current events, but not without a clear connection to academic context. Students are stimulated to apply different legal concepts to practical situations, to analyse practice from a legal (and multidimensional) perspective and to think of solutions to difficult legal problems.

Argumentation and communication

This course demands active participation and a strong presence in the crash courses and clinics. This entails that students are trained to put forward their analyses and opinions in a structured way. However, before that, emphasis is put on the process of brainstorming, communicating with group members and forming opinions together.

Writing skills (legal research)

In this course, students are tested (partially) by writing an academic paper on one of the selected topics placed in a broader context. This requires students to use their acquired analytical skills, and trains them in the field of legal research. Attention is paid to systematic information gathering, proper referencing, formulating a research question and a fitting research method.

Place of the course within the curriculum:

• Optional legal course

1. Knowledge, understanding, insight
After this course:

• the student has an understanding European regulation relevant for Internet law and policy.

• the student understands the core objectives and rules connected to the different perspectives, actors and Internet ages central to the course and can apply them to a particular case. These perspectives include at least:

• institutions and networks of Internet law and policy;

• Internet-related business models (such as advertising or content monetization);

• fundamental rights (including privacy);

• Internet technologies and applications on which business models are based, both in the past as well as in more recent times.

• the student has an insight into the global issues that drive and are connected to the development of Internet-related business models.

• the student understands the different tensions that arise on digital markets between competing rights, such as freedom of contract versus freedom of expression.

2. Contextual positioning
After this course:

• the student can identify the challenges of regulating Internet-related business models, particularly in industries such as the sharing economy and social media.
• the student understands the role of legal and societal values in the shaping and application of European regulation.
• the student is well versed in discussions about Internet law and policy that go beyond legal implications and into computer science and social sciences.
• the student understand ongoing public policy debates relating to the governance of the Internet in the European Union, such as the Digital Services Act package, the Artificial Intelligence Act and the Political Advertising Regulation.

3. General academic and legal skills
After this course:

• the student can express themselves and formulate complex legal arguments in (legal) English orally and written.
• the student is capable of applying legal theory to practical situations and analysing these situations in this context.
• the student has gained experience in formulating well-rounded arguments on the basis of newly acquired knowledge.
• the student is capable of finding relevant legal and academic sources for immediate application.

Ben je student aan de Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) of Wageningen University & Research (WUR)? Schrijf je dan in voor deze cursus via eduXchange.nl

Je moet voldoen aan de volgende eisen

• Alle onderstaande cursussen zijn behaald
• Inleiding verbintenissenrecht (RGBUPRV001)
• Inleiding goederenrecht (RGBUPRV002)
• Grondslagen van recht (RGBUSBR001)
• Inleiding staats- en bestuursrecht (RGBUSBR002)
• Inleiding strafrecht (RGBUSTR001)

• Internet pages Blackboard