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Setting the Policy Agenda on Innovation Issues

  • Alongside our in-depth policy reports, ITIF’s long-running Innovation Files blog serves as a forum where analysts provide quick takes, quips, and commentary on the latest in technology and innovation policy.
  • Other blogs from ITIF include In the Arena, Rob Atkinson’s notes on the battle of ideas (also on Substack at policyarena.org), plus special series, such as The Brussels Effect, examining how the EU exports its regulatory agenda; Defending Digital, examining spurious critiques of the tech industry; and Innovate4Health, covering the intersection between intellectual property and life sciences innovation.
  • ITIF analysts also frequently contribute op-eds and commentary pieces to leading publications around the world.

July 11, 2025|Blogs

Economic Experiments Weaken the FTC’s Case Against Meta

The recent trial in FTC v. Meta shows the important role that economic experiments can play in establishing a relevant market in antitrust cases. The evidence provided by Meta’s expert economists significantly hampers the FTC’s definition of the relevant market and thus its overall case.

July 11, 2025|Blogs

Yes, We Do Want to Be Like China

The reality is that if the United States doesn’t become more like China, it will lose the battle for advanced technology leadership.

July 10, 2025|Blogs

Building Canada’s Tech Cluster in Waterloo

Canada has zero entries among the world’s top 50 science and tech clusters. Waterloo is the best candidate for elevation. To make that happen, the federal and Ontario governments should create an incentive: Tech start-ups based in Waterloo, as well as firms outside Canada that relocate meaningful R&D and innovation production to the region, will pay no tax for a decade.

July 10, 2025|Blogs

Brussels Risks Prioritising Symbolism Over Substance in Cloud Procurement

In its push for digital sovereignty, the European Commission is reportedly planning to replace Microsoft Azure with the French cloud provider OVHcloud or another European alternative. But this move, while politically symbolic, would be costly. Far from enhancing security, this migration would sacrifice sound procurement and EU legal obligations in service of a hollow vision of digital nationalism.

July 8, 2025|Blogs

US Antitrust as an Anti-Competitiveness Weapon

Only in the United States is gutting a world-leading firm seen as a policy win. No other government would be insane enough to attack its own national champions the way American antitrust enforcers do.

July 7, 2025|Blogs

The Tortured Logic of Digital Services Taxes

Policymakers must justify why they should be allowed to tax the major digital companies differently from the leading firms in other industries. This challenge explains why so much of the DST debate has centered around obscure and abstract notions of a company’s “physical presence” and whether the company’s users “create value.”

July 7, 2025|Blogs

Canada Doesn’t Have an Innovation System: It Has 134 Programs

Canada needs a new federal institution that makes its innovation system more than the sum of its parts: a Canadian Innovation and Industrial Transformation Agency. This institution wouldn’t replace programs. It would govern them coherently, strategically, and at speed.

July 7, 2025|Blogs

Time for Strategic Clarity on the US Trade Agenda

With limited bandwidth for negotiations, we can no longer afford to treat all trade sectors equally. The administration should focus on what matters most for America’s economic and national security future: defending our technology industry from foreign attacks.

July 7, 2025|Blogs

Fact of the Week: The Biopharma Industry Invested $276 Billion in R&D in 2021, Significantly More Than Previously Estimated

Researchers estimate that R&D investment in the biopharma industries in 2021 was $276 billion, 170 percent greater than other commonly cited estimates.

July 7, 2025|Blogs

Supreme Court Ruling Sparks Age Checks—Here’s a Smarter Fix

The Supreme Court upheld Texas’s online age checks, opening the door to fragmented state laws. Congress should create a single national “child flag” system to protect kids and simplify compliance.

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