January 15, 2021

Net Neutrality and the Deplatforming of Trump (feat. Danny Sepulveda - SVP Policy, MediaMath)

44 minutes

The Internet & Net Neutrality

Danny works for the CEO of MediaMath on internal and external policy, as well as projects related to data partnerships and issues around privacy and competition.

After leaving the Obama administration, Danny started at MediaMath answering the question of what is wrong with advertising.

“There are significantly more actors than in that supply chain than I was aware of beforehand.” - Danny Sepulveda on transparency, misinformation, and disinformation in advertising.

Danny says that when it comes to Shopify and other brand’s recent decisions on censorship: “It’s a policy thing and it’s a private thing.”

“We need to have a much larger and more inclusive conversation about what we want the future of the Internet to look like, who we want to make value and judgement decisions for the Internet, and whether or not it’s fulfilling its original promise.” - Danny Sepulveda

“When we talk about network neutrality, it is a concept which has historically been rooted on the idea of gatekeeper access to a commons, to the platform of the Internet.” - Danny Sepulveda

Danny explains that the Biden campaign committed to a restoration of Title 2 authority over Internet service providers, which would restore Title 2 provisions that provide net neutrality at the Internet service provider level - and Danny believes that a Democratic FCC will revisit this.

Danny on why Democrats support network neutrality: “It was to ensure that large entities could not snuff out small entities or that big voices could not silence small voices.”

Antitrust, Communication Tools, & the Near-Future

There have been many lawsuits of antitrust towards Facebook and Google.

“I think ensuring that you have competitive markets through antitrust law is necessary but insufficient to ensure that people and societies feel safe with the media ecosystem that we’re living in and dependent upon.” - Danny Sepulveda

Danny says that there are scenarios that aren’t questions of competition, but questions of culture and society that require tools outside of antitrust to solve. Danny states that privacy and content moderation falls into those categories.

“I would argue that almost all forms of media and communications start out as a tool.” - Danny Sepulveda on media companies being used for collective thought and communication.

“These media and communications and these companies, like every private activity that has come before them, will have to be subject to communal oversight and communal regulation or acceptable in order to gain acceptance… We’re scared because we don’t really have any faith in the idea that a large corporation is going to act in the public interest.” - Danny Sepulveda

Danny personally knows some of the individuals that the Biden administration is bringing into the picture for net neutrality: “They’re the most talented, most capable, most honorable people I’ve ever worked with in my life. I’m very hopeful for the next four years.”

“We are at a very interesting point in the development of the relationship between marketers and media and what kind of media is financed and how and subject to what rules and where it will provide the greatest ROI. Those are huge developments that are being driven.” - Danny Sepulveda

Links

Check out Danny Sepulveda’s other appearances on Future Commerce:

Episode #106: Are We Being Fairly Compensated For Our Data?

Episode #63: Deep Fakes

Episode #55: Don’t Underestimate What Can Happen in Just 1 Year

Episode #54: Microsoft Paint, but for Augmented Reality

Episode #49: Public Policy and Net Neutrality

Check out MediaMath, where Danny regularly writes blogs.

If you have any comments or questions about this episode, you can reach out to us at [email protected] or any of our social channels. We love hearing from our listeners!

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By Phillip Jackson, Brian Lange

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