{"id":2619,"date":"2026-08-31T10:16:31","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T18:16:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/netpolicy\/?p=2619"},"modified":"2026-08-31T10:16:31","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T18:16:31","slug":"how-challengers-thrive-and-competition-survives-in-todays-ecosystem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/netpolicy\/2026\/08\/31\/how-challengers-thrive-and-competition-survives-in-todays-ecosystem\/","title":{"rendered":"How Challengers Thrive and Competition Survives In Today\u2019s Ecosystem"},"content":{"rendered":"

The web should be a place where people can choose how they connect, which tools they use, and who they trust. At Mozilla, we live these values, prioritizing products that ensure users can control their experience and that the web remains a global public resource.<\/p>\n

Challengers across the tech ecosystem provide these competitive opportunities, but they contend with structural barriers imposed by tech giants leveraging market dominance. A healthy internet depends on ensuring that independent companies have a fair opportunity to innovate and compete on merit. That’s why Mozilla and many others support key legislation like AICOA<\/a>.<\/p>\n

So how do we promote proposals like AICOA and ensure that challengers can thrive in markets controlled by powerful gatekeepers?\u00a0 We explored these questions and more at the recent Mozilla Meetup, \u201cHow Challengers Thrive: Why Competition Matters for AI, Security, and the Open Internet.\u201d<\/b>\u00a0 Across panel events, a lightning discussion, and a networking happy hour, we discussed promoting an innovative, secure internet.<\/p>\n

Partnering with Internet Works, Mozilla invited leading minds in tech policy to explore the importance of Middle Tech, AI\u2019s impact on security and competition, and new research on deceptive design practices<\/a>. Below are some highlights.<\/p>\n

On today\u2019s competition landscape, and Middle Tech as a user-first alternative:<\/b><\/p>\n

Peter Chandler, Executive Director, Internet Works:<\/p>\n

\u201cLess competition equals less innovation equals less choices for consumers. It’s that simple.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

Charlotte Slaiman, Principal, Charlotte Slaiman Impact Advising:<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are all sorts of reasons that competition is not just a click away. There are lock-in effects. There is gatekeeper power. Those things are protecting incumbents and making it much harder for consumers to switch to an alternative.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

On the impact of deceptive design tactics:<\/b><\/p>\n

Gemma Petrie, Principal Researcher, Competition & Regulation, Mozilla:<\/p>\n

\u201cFor independent browsers like Firefox, dominant operating systems are both the gateway to consumers and the direct competitor. When these platforms use harmful design to undermine free choice, this is not simply inconvenient. It can create consumer harm by overriding informed choice, social harm by eroding public trust in technology, and market harm by undermining competition and innovation.\u201d\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n

On the role of AI in competition and security:\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

Helen Toner, Executive Director, Georgetown\u2019s Center for Security and Emerging Technology (CSET):<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is really notable that in open source software, if you have more eyes on software and you can identify vulnerabilities, that makes it easier and quicker to patch those vulnerabilities to solve the problem. With AI, often we actually don’t have very good solutions when we identify problems, when we identify security risks, and so I think that can change some of the dynamics.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

Chris Lewis, President & CEO, Public Knowledge:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have an opportunity. It’s not too late in the AI era to not only design for competition through open technology, open source AI, model weights, some of the things we heard in the introduction, but also to set policies that promote competition.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

Avery Gardiner, Director of Global Competition Policy, Spotify:<\/p>\n

\u201cA big part of what I’m thinking about with AI is how quickly it allows us to innovate as an app developer, right, and how quickly we can speed up our coding, bring more features to consumers, bring more things to market, and be better at innovating for the consumer. And all of our competitors can do the same thing. So there’s this remarkable thing where the AI opportunities, the AI services, are getting better every passing day.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

There\u2019s a reason we convene this community. As the web becomes both more complex and even more integral to our lives, competition offers people the ability to make meaningful choices about privacy, security, and control. Competition fosters innovation and spurs better products and services. Now is a particularly important moment to advance these priorities.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The web should be a place where people can choose how they connect, which tools they use, and who they trust. At Mozilla, we live these values, prioritizing products that … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1879,"featured_media":2612,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"coauthors":[452988],"yoast_head":"\nHow Challengers Thrive and Competition Survives In Today\u2019s Ecosystem - Open Policy & Advocacy<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/netpolicy\/2026\/08\/31\/how-challengers-thrive-and-competition-survives-in-todays-ecosystem\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jenn Taylor Hodges\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/netpolicy\/2026\/08\/31\/how-challengers-thrive-and-competition-survives-in-todays-ecosystem\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/netpolicy\/2026\/08\/31\/how-challengers-thrive-and-competition-survives-in-todays-ecosystem\/\",\"name\":\"How Challengers Thrive and Competition Survives In Today\u2019s Ecosystem - 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