The Internet middlemen: targeting intermediary firms as gatekeepers in the online economy

Online information traffic passes through multiple layers of intermediation as communication flows between users. Each of these waypoints is a type of Internet Intermediary Platform, an online service or Internet provider that facilitates transactions by providing a means for information and information services to be hosted, accessed, shared, indexed, and transmitted between third parties on the Internet. ❧ Intermediaries lower transaction costs in the Internet economy by making it possible for users to find and evaluate the information, goods, and services they need and also providing forums which establish transactional norms and codes of conduct. Consequently they have tremendous power as both gatekeepers and facilitators. Accordingly, the internet intermediary is increasingly a target for stakeholders that want to exercise control over information flows and user behavior. One way to do this is to impose requirements upon intermediaries by holding them legally responsible for user actions. ❧ My dissertation examines third party liability lawsuits brought against internet intermediaries across using data from two empirical contexts: intellectual property violations and objectionable content suits. In doing so, I seek to examine how differences in the frequency of targeting by plaintiffs and variation in the proposed gatekeeping costs imposed on intermediaries might have implications for competitive dynamics within this population of firms.