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This is my fundamental problem with Elizabeth Warren et. al.. They act like the choices are omni-powerful US tech companies, or a plethora of small companies b

This is my fundamental problem with Elizabeth Warren et. al.. They act like the choices are omni-powerful US tech companies, or a plethora of small companies building utopia. They say "we need to hamstring our most successful companies to make space in the market for smaller players." The problem is that it isn't making space for smaller players; it's making space for countries with worse perspectives on human rights to try to catch up/fill the void. The world isn't a better place if we replace Google and Meta with ByteDance and Yandex. It's not even that those are bad companies (from what I hear, they're pretty similar internally to their US counterparts); it's that they are under the jurisdiction of administrations that are hostile to human rights.

atmosx 1y ago
Did this approach ever actually work out in the history of humanity? Like, we're fine with massive corporations spying on us because otherwise the Chinese/Russian/Aliens might? In the name of protecting freedom, we're violating it ourselves and we brag about it?
- scarface_74 1y ago
  Facebook offered its services in the EU to people without any tracking if you paid for the service. The Eu didn’t like that either.
  - atmosx 1y ago
    … is there a point you’re trying to make?
thewebguyd 1y ago
> The problem is that it isn't making space for smaller players; it's making space for countries with worse perspectives on human rights to try to catch up/fill the void. The world isn't a better place if we replace Google and Meta with ByteDance and Yandex. I mean, the foreign companies taking that space can be solved with sanctions, or digital services taxes, etc. What would you propose? Maybe Google, Apple, Meta, etc. are the lesser of the big evils but we definitely have a monopoly problem in the US, and there is very little space for competition, which only continues to harm consumers.

atmosx 1y ago

Did this approach ever actually work out in the history of humanity? Like, we're fine with massive corporations spying on us because otherwise the Chinese/Russian/Aliens might? In the name of protecting freedom, we're violating it ourselves and we brag about it?

scarface_74 1y ago
Facebook offered its services in the EU to people without any tracking if you paid for the service. The Eu didn’t like that either.
- atmosx 1y ago
  … is there a point you’re trying to make?

thewebguyd 1y ago

> The problem is that it isn't making space for smaller players; it's making space for countries with worse perspectives on human rights to try to catch up/fill the void. The world isn't a better place if we replace Google and Meta with ByteDance and Yandex. I mean, the foreign companies taking that space can be solved with sanctions, or digital services taxes, etc. What would you propose? Maybe Google, Apple, Meta, etc. are the lesser of the big evils but we definitely have a monopoly problem in the US, and there is very little space for competition, which only continues to harm consumers.