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If Google were to degrade its search results by demoting links to better services, users would just switch to a rival service, such as Bing or DuckDuckGo.
如果谷歌能夠通過降低到更好服務的鏈接來壓榨自己的搜索質量，用戶將會切換到競爭對手的服務去，如Bing或者DuckDuckGo。
But as digital platforms have grown ever bigger, that thinking has started to change, even in America.
但即使是在美國隨著數字平臺越來越大，這種想法已經開始改變。
A growing number of antitrust experts now accept the commission's view, that network effects create high barriers to entry in online markets.
如今，越來越多的反壟斷專家認同委員會的觀點即網絡效應給在線市場設置了高準入門檻。
This means that Google, for instance, can in fact degrade its search results selectively (and disadvantageously to its direct competitors) without having to fear that its users will defect, says Maurice Stucke of the University of Tennessee.
田納西大學的莫里斯·斯托克認為，這意味著谷歌事實上可以選擇性地降低其搜索結果質量使其不利于直接競爭對手而不必擔心其用戶會流失。
“We need these super-platforms to adhere to a principle of neutrality,” he says.
他說：“我們需要這些超級平臺堅持中立原則。”
How can such a principle be enforced?
那么，該如何實施莫里斯·斯托克所倡導的原則呢？
In the case at hand Google could just feed all search queries through one algorithm and do away with the second one that produces the Google Shopping results.
就目前情況來看，谷歌可以通過一個算法程序來運算處理所有的搜索請求，并且去掉與谷歌購物搜索結果一致的答案。
But what if this one algorithm still ends up putting Google's links on top?
但是如果這樣的算法最終還是把谷歌搜索鏈接放在上面呢？
Will the commission then force the firm to reveal its inner workings and even rewrite it?
委員會是否會迫使該公司披露其內部運作甚至重新編寫算法？
If search algorithms become more personalised, as is expected to be the case with digital assistants such as Amazon's Alexa, it will be even more difficult to detect bias.
如果這款搜索算法變得更加人性化了。諸如提供像亞馬遜Alexa一樣的數字助理搜索，偏見將會更難檢測出來。
譯文來源考研英語時事閱讀
