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oh wow, TIL. I assumed Trump would be against any government control of Big Tech
by kolinko 2y ago
oh wow, TIL. I assumed Trump would be against any government control
of Big Tech
- mvdtnz 2y agoThat's a weird thing to say. Trump has always been critical of big tech and favours breaking them up. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-tech-factbox/factbox-trumps-twitter-thoughts-on-big-tech-idUSKCN1UJ2OO/ https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-tech-factbox/fa... https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/6/10/18659748/trump-cnbc-interview-big-tech https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/6/10/18659748/t...
- toyg 2y agoTrump is critical of big tech that doesn't help him - I'm happy to bet he will oppose breaking up X as long as Musk is in his cabinet. Trying to describe Trump on a coherent ideological level is a fool's errand, like most strongmen he's just an opportunist.
- robertlagrant 2y agoWhy would you break up X?
- dmd 2y agoTo get two fabulous new companies, > and <. Or maybe ^ and v ? Or / and \ ?
- robertlagrant 2y agoI'm much more on board with this plan now. I want to see how many stock exchanges crash when I buy shares in <
- wil421 2y agoWhy would X be broken up? When I think of Big Tech I certainly don’t think of companies like Twitter or Snapchat.
- Workaccount2 2y agoThe point is that even if X was a dominating monopoly, it would be fine because Elon is on Trumps nice list. Trump is a typical power whore who praises and protects those that kiss his feet, and admonishes and punishes those who don't. This is the same game that all these self-interested power hungry people play.
- kelseyfrog 2y agoThe defining feature of the privilege is that it's arbitrary. If it was governed by a set of consistent rules, then it would be less effective at making him feel like he had power - the system, rather, would have power instead.
- Jensson 2y agoTwitter is very small compared to the likes of Google though, so not very big. It doesn't make sense to break up such a small company that basically just does one thing.
- llamaimperative 2y agoMore informatively: Trump was in favor of eliminating Section 230 protections for Twitter after they fact-checked one of his lies about election security. Presumably he will now want to revoke Section 230 for non-Twitter companies.
- UncleMeat 2y agoTrump supports people who make him feel good and hates people who make him feel bad. He isn't pointing the DoJ at big tech. He is pointing the DoJ at people who make him feel bad. Trump thinks that YouTube (and Google more broadly) is unfair to conservatives and is full of whiney liberals. You won't see consistent application of Trump's DoJ. It'll just be a hammer that he can swing at things he doesn't like. It could even be the case that many of the things that he swings the hammer at will deserve it. But there will be similarly deserving people, groups, and organizations who get off scot free because Trump isn't personally angry at them.
- dragonwriter 2y agoTrump is not particularly in favor of anti-trust policy in general, but he (and the GOP more generally, though Trump’s personal angle that of the GOP more broadly are slightly different though in general alignment) are very much for punishment of anyone in the information space that isn’t actively tilting in the direction he prefers, and is absolutely in favor of using antitrust law as a lever for that.
- qeternity 2y agoTrump is against things that oppose him, and for things that favor him. He perceives Big Tech as being an enemy, so he will use whatever tools available to punish.