“I see something you don’t see”: A computational analysis of the Digital Services Act and the Digital Markets Act

In its latest proposals, the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and Digital Services Act (DSA), the European Commission puts forward several new obligations for online intermediaries, especially large online platforms and “gatekeepers.” Both are expected to serve as a blueprint for regulation in the United States, where lawmakers have also been investigating competition on digital platforms and new antitrust laws passed the House Judiciary Committee as of June 11, 2021. This Article investigates whether all stakeholder groups share the same understanding and use of the relevant terms and concepts of the DSA and DMA. Leveraging the power of computational text analysis, we find significant differences in the employment of terms like “gatekeepers,” “self-preferencing,” “collusion,” and others in the position papers of the consultation process that informed the drafting of the two latest Commission proposals. Added to that, sentiment analysis shows that in some cases these differences also come with dissimilar attitudes. While this may not be surprising for new concepts such as gatekeepers or self-preferencing, the same is not true for other terms, like “self-regulatory,” which not only is used differently by stakeholders but is also viewed more favorably by medium and big companies and organizations than by small ones. We conclude by sketching out how different computational text analysis tools, could be combined to provide many helpful insights for both rulemakers and legal scholars.

The Bleep Heard round the World

No period during Watergate moved as quickly as mid-1974. In May, judicial action forced President Nixon to release damaging transcripts of private taped conversations. By July, the US Supreme Court ruled unanimously that Nixon must release the actual recordings, which was followed by the House Judiciary Committee passing the first three articles of impeachment with the charge of obstruction of justice. The content of the tapes proved the smoking gun to many because of conversations the president had within a week of the initial Watergate break-in, exposing how early he knew about it. Like Republicans on the Judiciary Committee who changed their vote as a result of the tapes, conservatives joined liberals within Protestantism to now condemn the president, though they continued to differ about their theological outlooks.

Labor Conflict

Two things affected early labor relations in the NFL, a unified ownership hostile to unions and the paternal character of the coach and player relationship. NFL salaries dropped after the merger with the AAFC and stayed depressed in the 1950s. There was an attempt to form a union led by Dante Lavelli of the Browns and Creighton Miller that was basically a failure. While the NFL was losing in court in the Radovich Case and failing to get an anti-trust exemption, NFL Commissioner Bert Bell maneuvered around the NFLPA and the House Judiciary Committee. The coming of the American Football League and Commissioner Pete Rozelle in the Sixties changed the relationship between the NFL and the players. Rozelle fought against the NFLPA under its various leaders, with some success by among other things violating labor law. Bernie Parrish, John Gordy, and John Mackey in turn led the NFLPA with various lawyers serving as director. The coming of Ed Garvey as council and subsequently Executive Director, working with John Mackey, resulted in a major conflict between the NFL and the NFLPA. Several strikes were called and failed and in effect the NFL defeated the NFLPA. Then the players disbanded the NFLPA and turned to the courts for redress where they had some success. The Mackey Case and subsequent collective bargaining agreements were landmarks along the way, but in the end success only came in the courts. Ed Garvey emerged as the prime villain and was under constant attack from the NFL, and in the end he was undermined by the League and by his own errors and resigned his position. For the most part the press supported the NFL against the players and helped turn the fans against the players. Labor turmoil continued and Commissioner Rozelle was incapable of achieving a labor settlement, while Garvey alienated the owners and some of the players. Both had to go before a settlement could be reached. Garvey resigned in June of 1982 following the failed strike. One more strike in 1987 led to Pete Rozelle’s retirement as he was tired of the struggle. The use of strike breakers moved some of the press away from ownership but again the strike failed. When the NFLPA went to court again they found that the courts would not allow them to sue because they were suing over a bargained issue. The result was a decision to decertify the NFLPA and then return to court to sue as individuals. This is where things stood as the Search Committee began looking for a new Commissioner.

Washington Hotline

The CASE Act makes its way through CongressSounds like a great idea: providing a venue to litigate small claims of copyright infringement so rights holders with limited resources can avoid the costs and extensive time necessary to bring a federal lawsuit. In fact, this is what the U.S. Copyright Office proposed in its 2013 policy study “Remedies for Copyright Small Claims,” requested by the House Judiciary Committee.