Digital platforms and the regulation challenge

Well, there are perhaps two main ways in which the giants of the internet raise regulatory questions. One is very brutally about money and that is the extent to which you can have what are both platforms but at the same time, hugely important players of cultural prescription going on advantageous terms into the market. So the fact that the giants of the internet are not effectively taxed means that they have advantages that other players, such as for example, public service broadcasters simply do not have. So that’s the first, I think, and that’s becoming an issue that is increasingly pertinent to the European policy agenda. And the second dimension really has to do with data and privacy.

To the extent that we give data away, we are actually doing the work of remunerating companies that then sell us all. And getting some kind of balance in that area seems to be absolutely crucial. And at the same time, there are much wider questions about one’s privacy in giving data because we live in an era of effectively increasing surveillance. And we are actually very vulnerable as individuals. Almost everything we do is digitally traceable. And a composite picture of ourselves as individuals and also as people who have affiliations is really easy to build up, and that, too, needs to be regulated.

People think they are making cultural choices, but at the same time, they are also making political choices in a very broad sense of political.