4 ms·

"Advocacy groups" hired and funded by whom? There are lots of "advocacy groups" demanding a lot of things. It would be interesting to find out why theverge and

"Advocacy groups" hired and funded by whom? There are lots of "advocacy groups" demanding a lot of things. It would be interesting to find out why theverge and other news companies selectively choose which "advocacy groups" to promote. Also, what about microsoft, netflix, amazon, twitter and most importantly google? Also, what about humongous international banks? Or the chemicals/agribusiness where 2 or 3 companies dominate the world's market. What about the media? Where a handle of megacorporations own so much of the market?

reaperducer 8y ago
Also, what about microsoft, netflix, amazon, twitter and most importantly google Only have to break up one and the rest will fall into line. what aboutism
- wahern 8y ago
  Fall in line how? Other than Google, which clearly abuses (at times) their market power from the dominance of Google Ads, Android, and Chrome, I have no idea what draws the ire of all those other companies; not individually and certainly not as a group. I guess it's supposed to be something... something... social media... something... privacy... something. But I strongly suspect it's just vague anti-corporate sentiment, anxiety around our bitter political divisiveness, and resentment over the excesses in the technology sector (e.g. brogrammers). I'm no anti-trust scholar but I don't think the purpose and design of anti-trust law is to resolve national cultural crises.
  - giornogiovanna 8y ago
    Microsoft is the poster-child of abusing market power, and Amazon isn't exactly innocent on that front, either.
    - wahern 8y ago
      I do think Amazon is the new Microsoft. With AWS, Amazon figured out how to embrace, extend, and extinguish the entire open source ecosystem. But AFAIK AWS isn't yet acting anti-competitively. (And neither is Microsoft any longer, for that matter.) I suppose maybe in the book publishing industry there are strong anti-trust concerns. But I don't think this is what people have on their minds. Few in the industry question the consequences of moving to AWS. And most people--techies and non-techies--use and enjoy Google Search, Chrome, and Android without qualms. Nobody is shedding a tear for Bing, Firefox, or Yahoo, and in any event nobody is arguing that Google unfairly muscled them out. It's only when a service or technology implicates social media do people really get fired up, and to a lesser degree the selling of mined personal data. But the fact that people think of Facebook, Google, and Twitter, plus a litany of other tech companies with household recognition, should all be punished betrays their logic. None of this behavior is anti-competitive; it's not destroying markets; it's not transferring wealth. It's one thing to argue personal data aggregation, mining, and selling should be more heavily regulated (a la GDPR). But anti-trust has nothing to do with it, and I don't see how splitting any of these companies up would substantially change anything, let alone result in a net benefit. At least not under the pretense of "fixing" social media, privacy, or fake news.

reaperducer 8y ago

Also, what about microsoft, netflix, amazon, twitter and most importantly google Only have to break up one and the rest will fall into line. what aboutism

wahern 8y ago
Fall in line how? Other than Google, which clearly abuses (at times) their market power from the dominance of Google Ads, Android, and Chrome, I have no idea what draws the ire of all those other companies; not individually and certainly not as a group. I guess it's supposed to be something... something... social media... something... privacy... something. But I strongly suspect it's just vague anti-corporate sentiment, anxiety around our bitter political divisiveness, and resentment over the excesses in the technology sector (e.g. brogrammers). I'm no anti-trust scholar but I don't think the purpose and design of anti-trust law is to resolve national cultural crises.
- giornogiovanna 8y ago
  Microsoft is the poster-child of abusing market power, and Amazon isn't exactly innocent on that front, either.
  - wahern 8y ago
    I do think Amazon is the new Microsoft. With AWS, Amazon figured out how to embrace, extend, and extinguish the entire open source ecosystem. But AFAIK AWS isn't yet acting anti-competitively. (And neither is Microsoft any longer, for that matter.) I suppose maybe in the book publishing industry there are strong anti-trust concerns. But I don't think this is what people have on their minds. Few in the industry question the consequences of moving to AWS. And most people--techies and non-techies--use and enjoy Google Search, Chrome, and Android without qualms. Nobody is shedding a tear for Bing, Firefox, or Yahoo, and in any event nobody is arguing that Google unfairly muscled them out. It's only when a service or technology implicates social media do people really get fired up, and to a lesser degree the selling of mined personal data. But the fact that people think of Facebook, Google, and Twitter, plus a litany of other tech companies with household recognition, should all be punished betrays their logic. None of this behavior is anti-competitive; it's not destroying markets; it's not transferring wealth. It's one thing to argue personal data aggregation, mining, and selling should be more heavily regulated (a la GDPR). But anti-trust has nothing to do with it, and I don't see how splitting any of these companies up would substantially change anything, let alone result in a net benefit. At least not under the pretense of "fixing" social media, privacy, or fake news.