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There are some natural fracture planes in the big tech companies where it's clear consumers would be better served by antitrust action: 1) Cleave Instagram and
by idlewords 7y ago
There are some natural fracture planes in the big tech companies where it's clear consumers would be better served by antitrust action:
1) Cleave Instagram and WhatsApp off of Facebook, to reduce the consolidation in Facebook's ad business model, and re-introduce competition both in the messaging and influencer-pouting-at-camera space.
2) Break off Android and Chrome from Google (and each other). Both are products that would do fine on their own, but where right now consumer interests are diametrically opposed to Google's advertising business model.
It's pretty clear that AVC wants to keep the entrenched surveillance business model, but create APIs on top of it for more startups they can fund. But there are ways to apply antitrust that won't make the surveillance problem worse, while reintroducing some competition, and better aligning company incentives with what their consumers want (e.g., allowing Chrome to go all-in on ad blocking).
- ethbro 7y agoThe biggest change would be separating Facebook and Google's ad businesses into separate companies. They should be able to sell ads to support their free products if they choose. But having the advertising business under the same roof as the product business creates an inherent conflict of interest, not least towards centralization and lock-in. If Google instead sold ad space and data to AdWords (the external company), responsibilities would be more clear.