Chaining cyber-titans to neutrality: An updated common carrier approach to regulate Platform Service Providers

Abstract

Common carrier is a common law concept. Internet networks are treated like common carriers in many respects, thus leading to the revival of this traditional form of regulation in debates on network neutrality, while Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are also defined as common carriers. As the Internet moves into a new phase in its development, commonly referred to as “Web 2.0,” Platform Service Providers (PSPs), such as search engines, online marketplaces, and social networks, play an important role in publicizing content, developing social relationships, and organizing online transactions. However, these PSPs are potentially non-neutral in a variety of ways that can significantly distort the experiences of most of their users. To address such problems, this paper proposes “PSP Neutrality,” demanding a categorization of PSPs as common carriers and focusing on responsibilities and liabilities they should bear according to neutrality requirements. Given that the products and services of online businesses are quite varied, even within the category of PSPs, this paper takes China's dominant search engine, Baidu.com, and China's biggest C2C website, Taobao.com, as examples to illustrate how the non-neutral behaviors of PSPs can harm the interests of online users. Accordingly, existing approaches are evaluated and a set of regulatory guidelines is proposed.