This article explores some of the critical challenges facing self-regulation and the regulatory environment for digital platforms. We examine several historical examples of firms and industries that attempted self-regulation before the Internet. All dealt with similar challenges involving multiple market actors and potentially harmful content or bias in search results: movies and video games, radio and television advertising, and computerized airline reservation systems. We follow this historical discussion with examples of digital platforms in the Internet era that have proven problematic in similar ways, with growing calls for government intervention through sectoral regulation and content controls. We end with some general guidelines for when and how specific types of platform businesses might self-regulate more effectively. Although our sample is small and exploratory, the research suggests that a combination of self-regulation and credible threats of government regulation may yield the best results. We also note that effective self-regulation need not happen exclusively at the level of the firm. When it is in their collective self-interest, as occurred before the Internet era, coalitions of firms within the same market and with similar business models may agree to abide by a jointly accepted set of rules or codes of conduct.

中文翻译：

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自我监管能否拯救数字平台？

本文探讨了自我监管和数字平台监管环境面临的一些关键挑战。我们研究了几个在互联网出现之前尝试自我监管的公司和行业的历史例子。所有人都面临着类似的挑战，涉及多个市场参与者以及搜索结果中潜在的有害内容或偏见：电影和视频游戏、广播和电视广告以及计算机化的航空公司预订系统。我们以互联网时代的数字平台示例跟踪这一历史讨论，这些示例以类似的方式被证明存在问题，越来越多的人呼吁政府通过部门监管和内容控制进行干预。最后，我们就特定类型的平台企业何时以及如何更有效地进行自我监管提供了一些通用指南。尽管我们的样本很小且具有探索性，但研究表明，将自我监管和政府监管的可信威胁相结合可能会产生最佳结果。我们还注意到，有效的自我监管不一定只发生在公司层面。当符合他们的集体自身利益时，如互联网时代之前发生的那样，同一市场内和具有相似商业模式的公司联盟可能会同意遵守一套共同接受的规则或行为准则。