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Facebook is a monopoly that buys, copies, kills competitors: antitrust committee

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Re: Facebook is a monopoly that buys, copies, kills competitors: antitrust committee

#161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> dedicated to improving his image and the image of the source of his wealth (Microsoft.) Why? Can't find the more recent value, but by 2017 he was down to ~1% stake and he was effectively transferring the amounts sold to the foundation. Why would he care significantly about the image of MS at this point? The last significant article mentioning Gates and Microsoft I can find is him departing the board in March. And n…

The point of PR is to not be obvious. And of course he would be interested in making MS look better, it’s the source of his wealth and will forever be associated with him.

Yet, you claim this is obviously happening. Can you point at some proof that there's heavy Gates -> MS PR campaign happening?

Re: Facebook is a monopoly that buys, copies, kills competitors: antitrust committee

#162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the real world, customers don't actually do that and in fact cannot for everything they buy. Regulation is simply more efficient and effective.

>Regulation is simply more efficient and effective. And that efficiency and effectiveness benefit an elite few. If people continue to "wake up" globally, becoming increasingly empowered by technology and democratizing philosophies, they will come to the logical conclusion that they can "vote" with their currency. Companies will definitely fucking pay attention if people stop buying their shit. For example, I've taken…

You got that backwards. Elites are the ones that benefit from letting people "vote" with money – since they have more of it. That is the opposite of democracy.

I'm not saying we shouldn't try to make ethical choices and just wait to regulation. But it is rarely sufficient. Boycotting a company as an individual has very little effect on the company but does inconvenience the individual. Doing that can feel good but it's actually pretty irrational. Organized boycotts are much more effective. And regulation is the ultimate (threat to) boycott.

If technology turned people into enlightened, selfless beings things would be different. I don't see that happening, to the contrary.

Furthermore, people have limited time and energy. They can't investigate in detail every product they consume.

Re: Facebook is a monopoly that buys, copies, kills competitors: antitrust committee

#163
post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If a big company buys another one in order to close it down, not migrate its services with the sole goal of achieving market dominance (monopoly), then yes, the government should have the power to block that acquisition as the public would be worse off with one big company being the only provider of something, rather than N companies providing something. This is why we have free markets, as we want companies to compe…

> If a big company buys another one in order to close it down Apple's business model right there.

Such as? As far as I can tell they have all been technology acquisitions. Sure, Apple uses the technology for its own products, but that should be expected since they are not in the components or IP licensing business.

Re: Facebook is a monopoly that buys, copies, kills competitors: antitrust committee

#164
post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If a big company buys another one in order to close it down Apple's business model right there.

Such as? As far as I can tell they have all been technology acquisitions. Sure, Apple uses the technology for its own products, but that should be expected since they are not in the components or IP licensing business.

Sorry I was unclear.

I meant that lately Apple has been buying companies that offer services to both Android and iOS and then shutting-down their Android businesses, even when they're very profitable and/or popular.

* Dark Sky

* Texture

* NextVR

* Chomp

* Beddit

* Color Labs

* Emagic (Windows, not Android)

Granted, Apple does keep some Android services running, such as Shazam and Beats, but Apple's decision not just to suspend development of Android clients for services like Dark Sky and Texture, but to actively prohibit Android users while still allowing iOS access to the exact same backend web-service is just mean-spirited.

Re: Facebook is a monopoly that buys, copies, kills competitors: antitrust committee

#165

So on one hand Facebook is a monopoly and something needs to be done about it. And on the other hand, the only real competitor is Chinese so it needs to be banned. I know my reasoning is not well thought out, but I just find it funny.

They want more domestic competition obviously, not foreign.

It's a winner-takes-it-all industry. Sometimes I have the weird realization that it's the same way if there was no GFW or regulations in China, there would be no Chinese competitors now because those tech giants in China would have been killed by the US counterparts years ago.

So domestic competition is not likely to happen anytime soon.

Re: Facebook is a monopoly that buys, copies, kills competitors: antitrust committee

#166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The point of PR is to not be obvious. And of course he would be interested in making MS look better, it’s the source of his wealth and will forever be associated with him.

Yet, you claim this is obviously happening. Can you point at some proof that there's heavy Gates -> MS PR campaign happening?

Gates and the Gates Foundation have hired numerous PR firms for various issues. Google it.

If you seriously think that one of the richest men in the world doesn't do the same thing for the sources of his wealth, I don’t know what to tell you.

Re: Facebook is a monopoly that buys, copies, kills competitors: antitrust committee

#167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why belong to a church and hide major life events like divorces from it? But your broader point is sound. I'd just replace "church" with "nosy extended relative".

Getting excommunicated whilst going through a messy divorce with kids is a problem. It could benefit from waiting until the divorce is concluded, particularly for the sake of the kids' stability. Those events can have repercussions for a long time if antagonised. You could pick any situation where a process like divorce is started, proceedings or repair of the relationship has yet to begin and an automated service al…

Folks have a bleakly transactional or institutional approach to church that I find baffling. I'm not sure what the point of church is if it doesn't help through personal crises.

Beyond that, if the divorce is OK with the church, what's the secret? If it's not OK and it's still happening, doesn't that imply irreconcilable differences with the church as well as the spouse? I guess given that, you have a point about timing, but all relationships are two-way streets, including ones between families and churches. Seems like the problems unravel on their own and we're just complaining about a catalyst.

Re: Facebook is a monopoly that buys, copies, kills competitors: antitrust committee

#168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Getting excommunicated whilst going through a messy divorce with kids is a problem. It could benefit from waiting until the divorce is concluded, particularly for the sake of the kids' stability. Those events can have repercussions for a long time if antagonised. You could pick any situation where a process like divorce is started, proceedings or repair of the relationship has yet to begin and an automated service al…

Folks have a bleakly transactional or institutional approach to church that I find baffling. I'm not sure what the point of church is if it doesn't help through personal crises. Beyond that, if the divorce is OK with the church, what's the secret? If it's not OK and it's still happening, doesn't that imply irreconcilable differences with the church as well as the spouse? I guess given that, you have a point about tim…

Well I try to stick to simple and universal, pragmatic problems. The timing thing is easy to see both sides as relatively neutral parties, without deliberate malice and still producing negative effects of consequence.

You could apply the same to being one day late on your taxes or truancy at school triggering automatic effects from phone location tracking, without reconcilliation.

If you want more serious examples there is the problem of what knowledge is deemed to be acceptable by those who record it and the potential for power, control and abusive influence.

Silent judgement and action is infinitely more available to the men and women behind the information gates. Without transperancy you'll never know why the things in your life are happening the way they are.

You might piss off the wrong IT guy at Facebook who then plasters your families' individual accounts with ads and content promoting the necessity of moving out and separating from a parent who has brown hair and other fake 'crimes' you committed. He could manufacture consesus in their social media with fake accounts. Your boss may be influenced to devalue the contributions of your kind of knowledge work because he buys into a work trend that was hyper-advertised to him. Your car may quietly auto-update with a bugged software patch that bricks it. You could have your credit score ruined by fake transactions and have your passport put into question.

There is a lot of power in knowledge these days and we fly by the seat of our pants because we want it to be on our side whatever the cost. I don't think any of this is particularly paranoid when mainstream hollywood movies have chronicled snowden/assange/security researcher leaks.

People are getting hacked every day, experian couldnt save their data from getting leaked, who's to say anyone is safe. Certainly not the head of the nsa or security reseachers who have been doing this for decades.

Re: Facebook is a monopoly that buys, copies, kills competitors: antitrust committee

#169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been going with GRAFT when referring to the social-media incumbents. (Strictly speaking it should be GRAAFT, and I can't figure a way to neatly include an 'M'.)

This tickled me but what does the A stand for? Does M$ (retro!) have a social media platform? They do have a television news station....

A = Apple/Amazon - not strictly-speaking social-media, I'd agree, but certainly in on the surveillance-cap bandwagon. Similarly MS.

Re: Facebook is a monopoly that buys, copies, kills competitors: antitrust committee

#170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Folks have a bleakly transactional or institutional approach to church that I find baffling. I'm not sure what the point of church is if it doesn't help through personal crises. Beyond that, if the divorce is OK with the church, what's the secret? If it's not OK and it's still happening, doesn't that imply irreconcilable differences with the church as well as the spouse? I guess given that, you have a point about tim…

Well I try to stick to simple and universal, pragmatic problems. The timing thing is easy to see both sides as relatively neutral parties, without deliberate malice and still producing negative effects of consequence. You could apply the same to being one day late on your taxes or truancy at school triggering automatic effects from phone location tracking, without reconcilliation. If you want more serious examples th…

I'm very on board with privacy and discretion. I was just puzzled by specifically hiding divorce from a church.

Healthy churches actually benefit from privacy and discretion for the same reasons therapy groups do. Often church activities are literally private therapy sessions.

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