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I think this short write up of the problems of consumer internet companies from a (Chinese) societal perspective is extremely on-point and obviously also applie

I think this short write up of the problems of consumer internet companies from a (Chinese) societal perspective is extremely on-point and obviously also applies from a western perspective: https://insider.techbuzzchina.com/c/policies-and-regulations/7-18-21-huang-qifan-comments-on-consumer-internet-8b7496e6-d361-4fd3-af94-426644c6f4dc https://insider.techbuzzchina.com/c/policies-and-regulations... 1. Companies burning money in an effort to scale up and obtain a monopoly. 2. Using human weaknesses to design products and acquire traffic. 3. Monopolistic online platforms taking asymmetric measures to collect information from users and infringing on their privacy. 4. Discriminatory pricing. Sometimes I wonder whether we in the west are capable of doing a similar crackdown? Or we have past the point of no return and companies like Facebook, Google, Amazon etc. are simply too powerful and too politically influental?

refenestrator 5y ago
Worth noting that we have different incentives in the US even accounting for different philosophies. US big tech is globally influential, clipping their wings would reduce that influence. Chinese big tech is generally more about the large Chinese market and diaspora.
- zozbot234 5y ago
  TikTok has quite a bit of influence outside China. So it seems that Chinese big tech can compete quite effectively in a global market.
  - seanmcdirmid 5y ago
    TikTok did, but none of the others except for maybe Alibaba made it. Tiktok is also popular outside of China with a product different from inside China (Douyin) that they acquired from another company after tiktok was released.
  - throwaway4good 5y ago
    So why did TikTok come out of China and not the US? Maybe it is because the monopoly of Facebook is too strong for alternatives to flourish. Point is: Even-though American big tech’s dominance is an US advantage, the monopolies still come at a cost.
yaitsyaboi 5y ago
It's not like this crackdown is about the CCP's concern for protecting user data and preventing monopolies. It's just a turf war over the data and in a larger sense over control of the direction of the country. Same reason Jack Ma went (extremely) conspicuously missing last fall. CCP wants the economic growth and international prestige that a burgeoning tech sector provides, but does not want anything resembling the system we have where facebook can tell the White House to take a hike. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/17/technology/facebook-vaccine-misinformation.html https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/17/technology/facebook-vacci...
- noarchy 5y ago
  It's very telling that you're being downvoted for pointing out the obvious about the CCP's motivations. Those trying to create moral equivalency between what the CCP is doing and the regulation that some want in the West are being very disingenuous.
pjc50 5y ago
Would we want a similar crackdown from the duopolistic political side? The Chinese government can move quickly and decisively because it doesn't have any checks or balances. The US would benefit from a system in which (a) there are clear rules for competition and (b) those rules are enforced, even-handedly; but it's harder than you think to get to that point.

refenestrator 5y ago

Worth noting that we have different incentives in the US even accounting for different philosophies. US big tech is globally influential, clipping their wings would reduce that influence. Chinese big tech is generally more about the large Chinese market and diaspora.

zozbot234 5y ago
TikTok has quite a bit of influence outside China. So it seems that Chinese big tech can compete quite effectively in a global market.
- seanmcdirmid 5y ago
  TikTok did, but none of the others except for maybe Alibaba made it. Tiktok is also popular outside of China with a product different from inside China (Douyin) that they acquired from another company after tiktok was released.
- throwaway4good 5y ago
  So why did TikTok come out of China and not the US? Maybe it is because the monopoly of Facebook is too strong for alternatives to flourish. Point is: Even-though American big tech’s dominance is an US advantage, the monopolies still come at a cost.

yaitsyaboi 5y ago

It's not like this crackdown is about the CCP's concern for protecting user data and preventing monopolies. It's just a turf war over the data and in a larger sense over control of the direction of the country. Same reason Jack Ma went (extremely) conspicuously missing last fall. CCP wants the economic growth and international prestige that a burgeoning tech sector provides, but does not want anything resembling the system we have where facebook can tell the White House to take a hike. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/17/technology/facebook-vaccine-misinformation.html https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/17/technology/facebook-vacci...

noarchy 5y ago
It's very telling that you're being downvoted for pointing out the obvious about the CCP's motivations. Those trying to create moral equivalency between what the CCP is doing and the regulation that some want in the West are being very disingenuous.

pjc50 5y ago

Would we want a similar crackdown from the duopolistic political side? The Chinese government can move quickly and decisively because it doesn't have any checks or balances. The US would benefit from a system in which (a) there are clear rules for competition and (b) those rules are enforced, even-handedly; but it's harder than you think to get to that point.