🗞️The App Store is the Most Powerful Tech Regulator

Financial Post

💭 Many have mused about the potential for a new global technology regulator. I wonder if we already have a couple.

Is the App Store a policymaker? Head on over to the Financial Post (or buy one!) and let me know what you think. 👇

Financial Post @financialpost

Opinion: Apple and Google have become de facto regulators. Let's make them work for us financialpost.com/opinion/opinio…

🏛️ regs to riches 💰

• Google Play and the App Store effectively determine what apps are on the market in a way equivalent to a national agency like the US’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or Health Canada. In this way, they are performing the role of a (pseudo) regulator. 

• Monetized mobile applications *already* pay a digital tax (of sorts) - to Apple [30% of their in-app revenue]. These funds go to a private corporation and not to the (or any) state. 

• The gatekeeping function of mobile stores may lead us to conflate what is popular with what is “proper.”

• There may be an opportunity for tighter alignment between these digital stores and governments, as Apple continues to update App Store policies.