Various economic and social factors motivated the recommendations made by the House of Representatives subcommittee regarding digital market platforms. The key economic factors include the discouragement of innovative ideas and monopolizing of the market. The practices adopted by the organizations discussed in the report, such as the acquisition of entrants firms in the digital market focus on killing competition. The dominance of few online platforms in the digital market erodes entrepreneurship and innovation, inhibiting economic growth and reducing consumer choice. The social factors which motivated the recommendations are the reliability of information acquired through these platforms and the privacy of consumers’ data. The platforms control the information accessed by consumers, limiting their freedom of choice.
The recommendations imply that the government will be regulating the practices of these digital platforms. Consequently, there will be fair competition, encouraging innovative entrepreneurs to join the digital market. Additionally, consumers will have more choices of the platforms they can use for social or economic purposes. Further, their data will be protected and able to switch from one platform to another without losing it. Moreover, they will receive unbiased and reliable information to facilitate sound decision-making. The committee’s recommendations are feasible because the government is mandated to protect the interests of consumers and promote fair business practices, encouraging innovation as well as economic growth.
The lack of competition among digital platforms has negatively affected me. These platforms utilize users’ profiles to control the information they can access. Platforms such as Facebook and Google only give partial options related to my search. Additionally, the lack of control of information shared leads to faster dissemination of false news causing unnecessary panic or harm to the public. For instance, unreliable news about Covid-19 shared through Facebook contributed to people not adhering to prevention measures set by the government and the World Health Organization (WHO), increasing the rate of infections.