Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/20pdf/20-197_5ie6.pdf
Page Number: 8

8 

BIDEN v. KNIGHT FIRST AMENDMENT INSTITUTE  
AT COLUMBIA UNIV. 
THOMAS, J., concurring 

Much like with a communications utility, this concentra-
tion  gives  some  digital  platforms  enormous  control  over 
speech.  When a user does not already know exactly where
to  find  something  on  the  Internet—and  users  rarely  do—
Google is the gatekeeper between that user and the speech 
of others 90% of the time.  It can suppress content by dein-
dexing or downlisting a search result or by steering users
away from certain content by manually altering autocom-
plete  results.  Grind,  Schechner,  McMillan,  &  West,  How 
Google Interferes With Its Search Algorithms and Changes
Your Results, Wall Street Journal, Nov. 15, 2019.  Facebook 
and Twitter can greatly narrow a person’s information flow
through similar means.  And, as the distributor of the clear 
majority  of  e-books  and  about  half  of  all  physical  books,4 
Amazon  can  impose  cataclysmic  consequences  on  authors 
by, among other things, blocking a listing. 

It changes nothing that these platforms are not the sole
means for distributing speech or information.  A person al-
ways could choose to avoid the toll bridge or train and in-
stead swim the Charles River or hike the Oregon Trail.  But 
in assessing whether a company exercises substantial mar-
ket  power,  what  matters  is  whether  the  alternatives  are 
comparable.  For many of today’s digital platforms, nothing 
is. 

If the analogy between common carriers and digital plat-
forms is correct, then an answer may arise for dissatisfied
platform  users  who  would  appreciate  not  being  blocked:
laws that restrict the platform’s right to exclude.  When a 
platform’s unilateral control is reduced, a government offi-
cial’s account begins to better resemble a “government-con-
trolled spac[e].”  Mansky, 585 U. S., at ___ (slip op., at 7); 
see  also  Southeastern  Promotions,  420  U. S.,  at  547,  555 

—————— 

4 As of 2018, Amazon had 42% of the physical book market and 89% of 
the  e-book  market.  Day  & Gu,  The  Enormous  Numbers  Behind  Ama-
zon’s Market Reach, Bloomberg, Mar. 27, 2019.