Digital platforms inhibit innovation to address today’s most pressing issues

The large research and development expenditures of the leading digital platforms (Alphabet-Google, Apple, Meta-Facebook, Amazon, and Microsoft) may send an image of beneficial investment and innovation, but the reality is that they suppress healthy innovators by depriving them of the “oxygen” needed to survive. Ariel Ezrachi and Maurice E. Stucke write that we should not be betting on tech barons’ ecosystems to deliver much-needed innovations to address pressing needs like global warming, wealth inequality, social unrest, growing population, and threats to democracy. They propose three principles to guide future policies aimed at promoting innovation in the digital economy.