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The most important word in the phrase is “big” not “tech”. The problem with these firms is they have too much concentrated power, which they obtained through a
by CPLX 3y ago
The most important word in the phrase is “big” not “tech”.
The problem with these firms is they have too much concentrated power, which they obtained through anti-competitive practices that are now cemented into the business model.
This is bad for society and it’s imperative on society to break up these entities and the power they wield as it’s incompatible with a democratic society.
- bagacrap 3y agoThen why not compare to big oil, big pharma, etc? The point is that both Big Tobacco and Meta sell dopamine addictions.
- scarface_74 3y agoSo how do you propose to break them up. And which one has a “monopoly” to the point you can’t choose an alternative? People are using their own free will to use their products
- CPLX 3y ago> So how do you propose to break them up. Court order, legislation. > And which one has a “monopoly” to the point you can’t choose an alternative? Google, Meta, Amazon, Microsoft, for starters. By the way that’s not the definition of a monopoly. > People are using their own free will to use their products From an artificially constrained set of options. Anti competitive behavior has clear definable negative outcomes, you can feign confusion if you want but it’s not confusing. Or, if it’s easier for you, you can just understand that organizations that wield massive amounts of power over the daily lives of ordinary citizens must be governed and restrained by democratic process in order for society to function.
- scarface_74 3y ago> Court order, legislation. That’s not what I meant. What would a break up for them look like? For instance AT&T was broken up into the baby bells. > From an artificially constrained set of options There is no other option for phones? Social media? Computers? Online commerce? And how is it “artificial”? > Or, if it’s easier for you, you can just understand that organizations that wield massive amounts of power over the daily lives of ordinary citizens So what is this “power”? How are they forcing you to do anything you don’t want to do?
- cratermoon 3y agoThere's a little book by James Williams titled Stand out of our Light: Freedom and Resistance in the Attention Economy that I highly recommend. <https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/stand-out-of-our-light/3F8D7BA2C0FE3A7126A4D9B73A89415D https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/stand-out-of-our-light/...> If you're not up for a whole book, however short, Ian Leslie's "The scientists who make apps addictive" is a great primer.<https://www.economist.com/1843/2016/10/20/the-scientists-who-make-apps-addictive https://www.economist.com/1843/2016/10/20/the-scientists-who...>
- scarface_74 3y agoAnd you still also haven’t come up with a reasonable way to “break up the BigTech”. If you ban the sale of apps with in game purchases that still doesn’t break up tech
- CPLX 3y agoBreaking up big tech is straightforward. You order Google to spin off the ads business, Amazon to split out AWS, Meta to split Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp into separate companies and so on.
- cratermoon 3y agoDid you know Amazon owns its own freight airline, called Amazon Air? Here's a few other things that could be split: AbeBooks, Book Depository, Goodreads, Audible; IMDb, Zappos, Twitch, Curse, Inc., Whole Foods, Ring, Egghead Software, Digital Photography Review, all the companies Amazon acquired and put into Kindle while killing off competing products, MGM studios, and a few dozen others.
- cratermoon 3y agoLina Khan explains it all: Amazon’s Antitrust Paradox <https://www.yalelawjournal.org/note/amazons-antitrust-paradox https://www.yalelawjournal.org/note/amazons-antitrust-parado...>
- scarface_74 3y agoAmazons share of commerce is 37% and it’s share of commerce is even smaller.
- cratermoon 3y agoOK now include all things Amazon owns: Amazon Air, AbeBooks, Book Depository, Goodreads, Audible; IMDb, Zappos, Twitch, Curse, Inc., Whole Foods, Ring, Egghead Software, Digital Photography Review, all the companies Amazon acquired and put into Kindle while killing off competing products, MGM studios