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I fully agree. Adding to this: I think there should be an interface/data divide. Facebook has created an entirely new market by aggregating specific data into a

I fully agree. Adding to this: I think there should be an interface/data divide. Facebook has created an entirely new market by aggregating specific data into a public space. Their only innovation is their interface; every single byte of data they collect from there is not theirs. They did not produce it, they do not own it. The only new legislation I'd like to see enacted is for these social media and data aggregators to be split into two companies: the interface company, which would exist to serve their interface, and a data utilities company, which would exist to serve the data they don't own. This would open their data market for hacking upon, in the spirit of what you suggest and enabled by the repeal of the legislation you've outlined. The only way towards greater freedom is to make the world freer.

c54 5y ago
I think this is roughly the approach that Liz Warren et all have been suggesting, roughly some sort of platform/participant divide. Applied to amazon it means they can't sell 'amazon basics' products, applied to Apple it'd mean something like they can't offer their own first party apps with higher priority, and applied to Facebook, it'd be exactly along the lines you've pointed out. Harks back to the antitrust action splitting train lines from steel producers in the 1920s. You need steel to make rail, and you need rail to transport steel, and the steel barons got rich by integrating across these two domains and giving themselves massive discounts compared to participants who were only in one industry and not both. I'm not sure exactly what the details or enforeement would look like here but I do think it's an interesting line of thought. One thing Matt Stoller says with respect to antitrust legislation is that every company is a unique situation and should be handled as such.

c54 5y ago

I think this is roughly the approach that Liz Warren et all have been suggesting, roughly some sort of platform/participant divide. Applied to amazon it means they can't sell 'amazon basics' products, applied to Apple it'd mean something like they can't offer their own first party apps with higher priority, and applied to Facebook, it'd be exactly along the lines you've pointed out. Harks back to the antitrust action splitting train lines from steel producers in the 1920s. You need steel to make rail, and you need rail to transport steel, and the steel barons got rich by integrating across these two domains and giving themselves massive discounts compared to participants who were only in one industry and not both. I'm not sure exactly what the details or enforeement would look like here but I do think it's an interesting line of thought. One thing Matt Stoller says with respect to antitrust legislation is that every company is a unique situation and should be handled as such.