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Traditional anti-trust methods would only go so far with big techs because while monopolies in the past are driven by economies of scale (and lobbying and other
by wishawa 5y ago
Traditional anti-trust methods would only go so far with big techs because while monopolies in the past are driven by economies of scale (and lobbying and other illegal stuffs, of course), big techs’ monopolies are mainly driven by strong positive feedback loops (search results quality for Google and network effect for Facebook). If Google and Facebook were to play it 100% fair, I doubt they would be smaller than 75% of their current size.
- dragonwriter 5y agoBreaking Google/Facebook up geographically for antitrust violations would be ineffective, but breaking them up by line-of-business would not and is well within traditional anti-trust remedies. The expansion of monopolies into adjacent and related markets is driven by leveraging the existing monopoly to monopolize new markets, which is already within the scope of acts addressed by traditional anti-trust (whether or not one views it as enabled by “network effects” or “feedback loops”), though regulators have been ineffective at addressing it in the internet space. This isn't a defect in traditional anti-trust law, but in anti-trust enforcement.
- wishawa 5y agoI agree with your argument in the case of Google. It would be good if Android, Google Earth, etc., are broken off from the main Google. But for Facebook I don’t see how it can be broken down. Instagram, Whatsapp, and Messenger, Facebook’s three big children, are not really separate lines of business from Facebook itself. This isn’t due to defects in anti-trust laws or their enforcements. Capitalism itself just isn’t made for the wide-reaching and feedback-loop-y industry that is social media.