Move Fast and Break Things: How Facebook, Google, and Amazon Cornered Culture and Undermined Democracy

Jonathan Taplin — director emeritus of the Annenberg Innovation Lab at USC and a former tour manager for Bob Dylan and The Band — argues that the concentration of the digital economy in the hands of three companies — Facebook, Google, and Amazon — has not merely disrupted existing industries but has actively undermined the cultural and economic foundations of democratic society. His analysis draws on media economics, political philosophy, and his own experience in the music and film industries to show how the platform model extracts value from creators while concentrating power in ways that earlier generations of monopoly law was designed to prevent.

The book is relevant to the information environment because it provides the economic context for understanding why platforms are structurally resistant to meaningful governance: their monopoly positions give them the resources and political influence to resist regulation, while their advertising business models give them powerful incentives to maximise engagement regardless of the social consequences. For practitioners advising clients on platform risk, the book provides essential context for understanding why voluntary platform action on disinformation has been consistently insufficient and what structural remedies might actually be required.