2022 KGRI Working Papers
How Can and Should the Platforms be Governed? Assessment of EU Digital Services/Markets Acts
In 2021, the EU passed the Digital Services Act (DSA) and the Digital Markets Act (DMA), strengthening regulations on mega digital platforms. The United States, home to mega-platform operators, had already experienced legal disputes over governance in the digital society in the 1998 Microsoft antitrust lawsuit, but according to the author, it has forgotten the lessons learned there. Drawing on his experience as a special master to the judge in that lawsuit, the author legally evaluates the EU's digital platform regulations and explores the shape of governance for mega-platforms by proposing other possible forms of 'regulation'.
This working paper is a transcript of the lecture and discussion with Professor Jiro Kokuryo (Faculty of Policy Management, 麻豆传媒在线; KGRI Center for Cyber Civilization) from the KGRI Great Thinker Series lecture held on June 24, 2022, with Professor Lawrence Lessig of Harvard Law School as the invited speaker, with minimal additions and corrections. In the lecture, Professor Lessig, who pointed out the existence of code as a method of governance in digital space, was asked how he evaluates the regulation of digital platforms by law.