Powerful pithy analysis of why “it’s time to start tinkering with the machinery” of “the mint.”

There is a simple and direct way to do that that few have recognized. Regulate data in much the way we regulate auto emissions.

Many have observed that the ad-based revenue model is “the original sin of the Internet.” The government can force change, without over-engineering the details of the remedy. Requiring a growing percentage of revenue from users is the simplest way to drive a fundamental shift toward better corporate behavior. Others have suggested Facebook should pay for data and attention, and I suggest this is most readily done in the form of credits against a user service fee.

Mandating a target level of revenue from users could drive Facebook to offer these data credits, to meet a user revenue target (even if most users pay nothing more). We will not motivate trustworthiness until the user becomes the customer, not the product.

There is a regulatory method that has already proven success: the US mandates increases in Fuel Efficiency. This limits the systems that have been shown to cause harm. Businesses can determine how best to achieve that. Require that X% of the revenue come from users rather than advertisers. Keep ratcheting up the %. (Do that only above some amount of revenues, to facilitate competition.)

With that we can be less dependent on more problematic kinds of regulation (like privacy regs that must be very well crafted to avoid entrenching the oligarchs). By cutting through these knotty problems, regulators and Congress can take swift, effective action — then take the time to do more nuanced regulation that tweaks the details to the extent still necessary. We don’t have time to waste!

See “To Regulate Facebook and Google, Turn Users Into Customers.” More on why and how, in “Reverse the Biz Model! — Undo the Faustian Bargain for Ads and Data.”