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> "internet giants" > given that they offer largely free services Why don't we just hold a gun to peoples' heads while we poll people and tell them they're ev

> "internet giants" > given that they offer largely free services Why don't we just hold a gun to peoples' heads while we poll people and tell them they're evil for voting "No"? Is this what passes as best practice in the world of opinion polling?

danaris 6y ago
I'm not sure how you get from your quotes to your own post. My reading of it was, "Due to the fact that their offerings to the public are free, antitrust law, whose jurisprudence has for decades held that consumer prices are the sole useful measure of whether a company is anticompetitive, has largely ignored internet giants. Do you think that this should change, ensuring that they receive the same level of antitrust scrutiny as companies that drive out their competitors and then jack up prices?" Now, I don't know if that's what everyone taking the poll would have gotten out of the given wording, but when I see the mention of "free services" in the context of internet giants and antitrust law, that's where my mind goes. It's...not at all an obvious "yes" (unless, like me, you're extremely far left of the average American), so I'm not sure where you're getting a "gun to the head" feel.
- AndrewUnmuted 6y ago
  You're really not sure? I would not trust any poll that thinks the use of the term "internet giants" is going to yield results without biases imposed by the poll itself. Just about nobody polled on this question is going to know what qualifies a company to be gone after for anti-trust violations. They have never read the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. Then the question tacks onto the end, "given that they offer largely free services." This is supposed to do what, exactly? Inform people that offering "largely free services" is a violation of the anti-trust act? This kind of deceptive wording is clearly endeavoring to mislead people. There does not appear to have been any effort at constructing an accurate picture here, and let's be honest as to why. In all likelihood, this poll was designed to construct and reinforce a specific narrative, not to report on public opinion.

danaris 6y ago

I'm not sure how you get from your quotes to your own post. My reading of it was, "Due to the fact that their offerings to the public are free, antitrust law, whose jurisprudence has for decades held that consumer prices are the sole useful measure of whether a company is anticompetitive, has largely ignored internet giants. Do you think that this should change, ensuring that they receive the same level of antitrust scrutiny as companies that drive out their competitors and then jack up prices?" Now, I don't know if that's what everyone taking the poll would have gotten out of the given wording, but when I see the mention of "free services" in the context of internet giants and antitrust law, that's where my mind goes. It's...not at all an obvious "yes" (unless, like me, you're extremely far left of the average American), so I'm not sure where you're getting a "gun to the head" feel.

AndrewUnmuted 6y ago
You're really not sure? I would not trust any poll that thinks the use of the term "internet giants" is going to yield results without biases imposed by the poll itself. Just about nobody polled on this question is going to know what qualifies a company to be gone after for anti-trust violations. They have never read the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. Then the question tacks onto the end, "given that they offer largely free services." This is supposed to do what, exactly? Inform people that offering "largely free services" is a violation of the anti-trust act? This kind of deceptive wording is clearly endeavoring to mislead people. There does not appear to have been any effort at constructing an accurate picture here, and let's be honest as to why. In all likelihood, this poll was designed to construct and reinforce a specific narrative, not to report on public opinion.