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I'm interested in the dichotomy of comments here between when Trump Admin releases a tool to report censorship and when Elizabeth Warren talks about how we need

I'm interested in the dichotomy of comments here between when Trump Admin releases a tool to report censorship and when Elizabeth Warren talks about how we need to break up Big Tech. Also, it's fascinating how many of the negative reaction comments want to pretend like there are actual alternatives to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Amazon Marketplace. If the argument comes down to "it's a private business, do whatever you want"... Well, let's be at least partially honest this is a new problem and these are effective-monopolies.

bediger4000 7y ago
Why? Censorship is quite a different issue from anti-trust. Censorship in the USA applies to the government, not to individuals (real humans or corporations), basically because the idea is that nobody wants to pay for someone else's sub-moronic "free speach". Anti-trust, in the USA, is related to harmful effects to consumers. Monopolies can charge monopoly rents, or slow innovations or change in the monopolized market. Absolutely two different issues. Also, lots of folks pretended there were actual alternatives to Microsoft in 2000. It's not a new problem.
- SlowRobotAhead 7y ago
  >Why? Censorship is quite a different issue from anti-trust. Is it in this case? The censorship here is only effective because of the failures in anti-trust to adapt to the modern internet tech giants. If you are pretending that these companies aren't monopolies in search, video delivery, messaging, and social media... Well, I disagree. So I get what you're saying, but let's not pretend Microsoft in 2000 was larger than Google or Facebook is now. The issue is that these companies are clearly pretending to be PLATFORM when it suits them, and PUBLISHER when it suits them.
  - bediger4000 7y ago
    > So I get what you're saying, but let's not pretend Microsoft in 2000 was larger than Google or Facebook is now. Larger in terms of what? Cash flow? Probably not. Monopoly power? Microsoft had something like 95% of a market that didn't even have 3 major players. The 4-firm concentration ratio was ridiculous, as was the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index. Microsoft owned so much of the market for PC operating systems that they loaned Apple money to avoid anti-trust issues. Google is at about 92% of the global share of searches, but Bing, Yahoo, Baidu, Yandex exist. DuckDuckGo actually entered the market not too long ago. Google now has nowhere near Microsoft's monopoly power.

bediger4000 7y ago

Why? Censorship is quite a different issue from anti-trust. Censorship in the USA applies to the government, not to individuals (real humans or corporations), basically because the idea is that nobody wants to pay for someone else's sub-moronic "free speach". Anti-trust, in the USA, is related to harmful effects to consumers. Monopolies can charge monopoly rents, or slow innovations or change in the monopolized market. Absolutely two different issues. Also, lots of folks pretended there were actual alternatives to Microsoft in 2000. It's not a new problem.

SlowRobotAhead 7y ago
>Why? Censorship is quite a different issue from anti-trust. Is it in this case? The censorship here is only effective because of the failures in anti-trust to adapt to the modern internet tech giants. If you are pretending that these companies aren't monopolies in search, video delivery, messaging, and social media... Well, I disagree. So I get what you're saying, but let's not pretend Microsoft in 2000 was larger than Google or Facebook is now. The issue is that these companies are clearly pretending to be PLATFORM when it suits them, and PUBLISHER when it suits them.
- bediger4000 7y ago
  > So I get what you're saying, but let's not pretend Microsoft in 2000 was larger than Google or Facebook is now. Larger in terms of what? Cash flow? Probably not. Monopoly power? Microsoft had something like 95% of a market that didn't even have 3 major players. The 4-firm concentration ratio was ridiculous, as was the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index. Microsoft owned so much of the market for PC operating systems that they loaned Apple money to avoid anti-trust issues. Google is at about 92% of the global share of searches, but Bing, Yahoo, Baidu, Yandex exist. DuckDuckGo actually entered the market not too long ago. Google now has nowhere near Microsoft's monopoly power.