The dominant digital platform companies, including Facebook and Google, make their profits using business models that erode this commons. Most of the proposals to change platform companies rely on either antitrust law or regulatory action. The tax that I propose would be applied to revenue from sales of targeted digital ads, which are the key to the operation of Facebook, Google and the like. There are several advantages to using tax legislation, rather than antitrust law or regulation, as a strategy. Senator Elizabeth Warren, for example, has called for breaking up big tech companies.

Source: New York Times May 06, 2019 23:03 UTC