Reports & Briefings

For brief overviews of how key technologies work and why they matter, see ITIF’s “Technology Explainer Series.”

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March 12, 2021
Reality Check: Facts About Big Versus Small Businesses
Big businesses are under intense scrutiny these days as a populist antitrust movement gathers momentum. But the truth is large firms treat their workers far better than small firms do. They’re also more innovative, contribute more to the economy—and have a better track record of advancing a host of other progressive goals.
March 10, 2021
How Progressives Have Spun Dubious Theories and Faulty Research Into a Harmful New Antitrust Doctrine
To advance their goals of economic redistribution, progressives—relying on faulty research, half-truths, and erroneous claims—have delegitimized the long-accepted “consumer welfare” approach to antitrust and generated a groundswell of support for a new “public interest” standard that seeks to protect competitors, especially small businesses.
March 8, 2021
Building Back Cleaner With Industrial Decarbonization Demonstration Projects
The Biden administration’s infrastructure package should include $5 billion over five years in cost-shared demonstration projects that seek to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions from heavy industries such as steel, cement, and chemicals.
March 4, 2021
Balancing User Privacy and Innovation in Augmented and Virtual Reality
AR/VR devices create novel issues for user privacy due to the scope, scale, and sensitivity of the information they collect. To mitigate harms, policymakers should reform the current patchwork regulatory landscape for data privacy, which fails to address some risks while over-regulating in response to others.
March 3, 2021
How Data-Sharing Partnerships Can Thwart Counterfeits on Online Marketplaces
While brand sellers, online marketplaces, and law enforcement agencies all share an interest in stopping counterfeits, their efforts to detect and prevent their sale remain siloed and uncoordinated.
March 1, 2021
How Congress and the Biden Administration Could Jumpstart Smart Cities With AI
AI promises to help cities save money, address infrastructure needs, and reduce emissions. But to unlock these benefits and help smart cities reach their full potential, the federal government has an important role to play in funding RD&D and facilitating cooperation.
February 22, 2021
Overview of Section 230: What It Is, Why It Was Created, and What It Has Achieved
In the ongoing debate over whether and how to amend Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, it is important to understand the law’s origins, meaning, and impact—because, for better or worse, it has shaped the modern Internet.
February 22, 2021
The Exceptions to Section 230: How Have the Courts Interpreted Section 230?
Courts have generally interpreted Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act broadly, but they have identified some limits for when the law does not provide immunity from liability.
February 22, 2021
Fact-Checking the Critiques of Section 230: What Are the Real Problems?
Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act has become a key battleground in the larger debate over free speech and content moderation. There are legitimate and illegitimate critiques about it—but they don’t negate the law’s many benefits.
February 22, 2021
How Other Countries Have Dealt With Intermediary Liability
As the United States debates potential reforms to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, it is important to understand and evaluate the alternative approaches that other countries have taken to intermediary liability.

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