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Let’s assume for a moment that Facebook and Google we’re clearly monopolies that needed to be regulated. How would that work practically? Does the justice depar

Let’s assume for a moment that Facebook and Google we’re clearly monopolies that needed to be regulated. How would that work practically? Does the justice department and federal courts have people capable of understanding the nuances of some of these companies or are we going to end up with CEOs reminding senators that iPhones aren’t made by google?

cgidriver 7y ago
I think at this point - its not an assumption that Google and Facebook are monopolies. It is a fact. Here are some thoughts on regulating them: 1. No Lobbying allowed. 2. No business expenses for anyone related to politics or for politicians. 3. Their legal department gets a 50% budget cut for eternity. 4. Form an employee union.
lithos 7y ago
The same could have been said of steel and rail barons.
jdblair 7y ago
Yes, the justice department and federal courts have domain experts who understand the nuances of the tech industry. You are conflating elected officials (Senators) and the staffers in the justice department who are experts in their fields. The real danger is regulatory capture: the experts come from industry and will design regulations to favor the industry. The best remedy would be to break the companies into pieces rather than try to craft rules for how the behemoths should behave. For example, Instragram and Whatsapp can pretty obviously be split from Facebook. At Google, YouTube, mobile, search and even advertising could be split into separate companies.
- MaupitiBlue 7y ago
  Right. Just like the FAA.
- anticensor 7y ago
  Instagram cannot be taken out (due to backwards horizontal integration), WhatsApp, maybe. The correct solution for FB is revoking its business license with a very short notice period.
goatinaboat 7y ago
Well, same as Standard Oil or Bell, break them up. Make Google sell off YouTube, GMail, Google Cloud, Android etc and just be a search company again. End all integrations between them to prevent further abuse.
- tracer4201 7y ago
  And gmail, Google Cloud, and Android are different organizations in one company. What’s the line? Having too many products? Do we break up other companies too? I’m trying to tease apart the logic here that makes tech companies a special case.
  - goatinaboat 7y ago
    What made Standard Oil a special case? A combination of its size and its behaviour. Same with Ma Bell. Specifically we need to prevent the river of cash Google gets from AdWords being used to run its other businesses at a loss purely to stifle competition. Maybe YouTube can stand on its own, maybe not. Maybe Google Cloud can, maybe not.
    - tracer4201 7y ago
      You’re stating accusations as facts. How does Google Docs stifle competition? How does YouTube stifle competition? Who is stopping you from creating another YouTube? Ma Bell literally had sole access or directly owned infrastructure and therefore actually stifled competition. It’s unreasonable to assume someone else could enter the market. I’m not seeing how that’s the case with Google. Their ads business may very well be printing money, but stating they can’t reinvest that to grow their business in other verticals or streams doesn’t make sense. I assume you’re arguing in good faith, but your post reads less like “Here’s a company actually stifling competition and hurting consumers” and more like “I don’t like tech is so successful. We should break them up.”
- Notorious_BLT 7y ago
  As a user of several of those services, that sounds awful.

cgidriver 7y ago

I think at this point - its not an assumption that Google and Facebook are monopolies. It is a fact. Here are some thoughts on regulating them: 1. No Lobbying allowed. 2. No business expenses for anyone related to politics or for politicians. 3. Their legal department gets a 50% budget cut for eternity. 4. Form an employee union.

lithos 7y ago

The same could have been said of steel and rail barons.

jdblair 7y ago

Yes, the justice department and federal courts have domain experts who understand the nuances of the tech industry. You are conflating elected officials (Senators) and the staffers in the justice department who are experts in their fields. The real danger is regulatory capture: the experts come from industry and will design regulations to favor the industry. The best remedy would be to break the companies into pieces rather than try to craft rules for how the behemoths should behave. For example, Instragram and Whatsapp can pretty obviously be split from Facebook. At Google, YouTube, mobile, search and even advertising could be split into separate companies.

MaupitiBlue 7y ago
Right. Just like the FAA.
anticensor 7y ago
Instagram cannot be taken out (due to backwards horizontal integration), WhatsApp, maybe. The correct solution for FB is revoking its business license with a very short notice period.

goatinaboat 7y ago

Well, same as Standard Oil or Bell, break them up. Make Google sell off YouTube, GMail, Google Cloud, Android etc and just be a search company again. End all integrations between them to prevent further abuse.

tracer4201 7y ago
And gmail, Google Cloud, and Android are different organizations in one company. What’s the line? Having too many products? Do we break up other companies too? I’m trying to tease apart the logic here that makes tech companies a special case.
- goatinaboat 7y ago
  What made Standard Oil a special case? A combination of its size and its behaviour. Same with Ma Bell. Specifically we need to prevent the river of cash Google gets from AdWords being used to run its other businesses at a loss purely to stifle competition. Maybe YouTube can stand on its own, maybe not. Maybe Google Cloud can, maybe not.
  - tracer4201 7y ago
    You’re stating accusations as facts. How does Google Docs stifle competition? How does YouTube stifle competition? Who is stopping you from creating another YouTube? Ma Bell literally had sole access or directly owned infrastructure and therefore actually stifled competition. It’s unreasonable to assume someone else could enter the market. I’m not seeing how that’s the case with Google. Their ads business may very well be printing money, but stating they can’t reinvest that to grow their business in other verticals or streams doesn’t make sense. I assume you’re arguing in good faith, but your post reads less like “Here’s a company actually stifling competition and hurting consumers” and more like “I don’t like tech is so successful. We should break them up.”
Notorious_BLT 7y ago
As a user of several of those services, that sounds awful.