Marketplace of Ideas 3.0? A Framework for the Era of Algorithms

For over a century, Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes’ metaphor of the “Marketplace of Ideas” has been central to Americans’ conceptualization of the First Amendment. However, the metaphor has evolved, and the today’s marketplace looks much different than the marketplace of the early twentieth century. We argue that the Marketplace of Ideas is now a dynamic environment of information exchange that is distributed throughout the internet and private applications and is guided by algorithms. The modern Marketplace of Ideas frames discussion of freedom of expression and content moderation. An updated understanding of the metaphor allows for an improved public sphere of discussion where free thought can flourish, truth can be tested, and ideas can be productively exchanged. This paper articulates three central evaluative criteria against which a given contemporary marketplace regime can be judged: instrumental value; epistemic value; and normative value. In this paper, we explain how the metaphor has evolved into marketplace 3.0 and the criteria necessary for judging the usefulness of the Marketplace of Ideas