They have 50% of the US market, and control 75% of the app store spend. (iOS users spend 4x as much in aggregate), ergo, they are the gatekeepers of 75% of the

They have 50% of the US market, and control 75% of the app store spend. (iOS users spend 4x as much in aggregate), ergo, they are the gatekeepers of 75% of the mobile software economy, take a 30% cut, are using their closed ecosystem leverage to inflate an inferior music streaming competitor (Apple Music) vs Spotify, etc. I mean, there's lots of current market power abuse or potential market power abuse, and had it not been for Android, who knows how much of a monopoly they'd have. That said, I don't think they need to be broken up, nor do I think Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook, or Google do. The problems of wage stagnation in the advanced economies have nothing to do with tech. The "whataboutism" this time is correct, because we're quit literally talking about spending political capital to break up these companies on mostly theoretical harm, with unknown consequences, while ignoring decades of much much nastier abuses by other corporations that have actually killed lots of people. You're not going to seriously get me triggered over Amazon blowing away Walmart, at the same time, you have chemical companies dumping toxic waste into streams. On the scale of needs, I'm worried about Amazon last. There's a tendency of #firstworldproblems, of people in cushy white collar desk jobs, to hyperbolize relatively minor effects on their own life, while they consume products from companies that ship misery abroad, overseas. You lose your shit when someone removes a feature from Snapchat because it affects you directly, but continue to enjoy your Sweatshop manufactured clothing, or your durable goods made with blood minerals because you don't see who it's hurting. No good deed goes unpunished it seems. Many of the tech companies have been at the forefront of corporate responsibility compared to old industries, have reliably contributed to progressive causes, have responded to publish criticism and pressure without needs to be sued into it, and yet, all of the focus is on them. I mean, good lord, Paul Manafort worked with defense contractors, right wing think ranks, and Congress and shipped small arms to a Angola, which was in the middle of a peace talks to end a civil war, and re-ignited a fight that got 100,000 people killed. Whataboutism in this case is justified, if you're going to spend your time lobbying for something, spend it on something that's going to help save people in actual danger.