Platform Monopolies
Context: Two landmark U.S. rulings in 2024–25 found Google illegally maintaining monopolies in both search and digital advertising. These decisions offer a powerful lens on how platform power can distort information flows and reinforce self-serving feedback loops [1].
1. Background
Search Monopoly (Aug 2024): Google paid billions to be the default engine on browsers and devices, securing ~90% market share.
Ad-tech Monopoly (Apr 2025): Google structured its ad auctions to privilege its own exchange, capturing an average of >30% of ad spend [2].
2. Mapping onto the VIM Domains
Embodied Interaction (Sensing)
Users’ data is scraped and centralized; diminishes individual control over personal information.
How does hidden data-capture undermine our capacity for informed, embodied awareness?
Relational Mapping (Feeling)
Publishers lose revenue; journalistic ecosystems erode; trust relationships fracture.
In what ways do monopolized ad flows reshape who we can trust and how we connect?
Ethical Alignment (Thinking)
Defaults and opaque AI training create misaligned incentives, prioritizing profit over fairness.
How might enforced transparency and interoperability restore alignment between commercial incentives and public good?
Adaptive Learning (Intuition)
Entrenched platforms stifle experimentation and competition, impeding adaptive ecosystem responses.
What structures would allow smaller players to innovate and adapt alongside giants like Google?
3. Implications for Vital Intelligence
Structural Remedies: Divestiture and enforced interoperability break feedback loops that lock in dominance.
Behavioral Rules: Transparency in AI-model training and ad auctions fosters trust and collective monitoring.
Global Coordination: Aligned antitrust actions across jurisdictions prevent regulatory arbitrage.
Power & Knowledge: Democratising infrastructure shifts rule-setting power back toward communities.
4. Further Reading
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