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House lawmakers release anti-monopoly agenda for “a stronger online economy”

cicilline.house.gov

11–20 of 226 posts

Re: House lawmakers release anti-monopoly agenda for “a stronger online economy”

#11

the problem with “breaking up big tech” is it only breaks up american companies. it has a long run impact of letting foreign companies take over american market share

From where? Not Europe, where they don't have any of these companies, and have even more stringent regulations.

China or Russia then? Easy, just ban their services like they do for ours.

Re: House lawmakers release anti-monopoly agenda for “a stronger online economy”

#12
post #5

> Big tech has routinely suppressed conservative voices and violated consumers’ privacy,” said Rep. Gooden. “We must rein in their destructive behavior and preserve the constitutional rights of all Americans.” First, this whole suppressing conservatives voices thing is just totally unhinged from reality. The few tiny examples of this violate clearly defined platform rules (which pale in comparison to the giant gain o…

I won't comment on your first point but I will say it's weird you argue for private companies' rights and then use a country where most of our tech companies are de facto banned(Twitter, Facebook, Google, Instagram, Reddit, Snapchat, Pinterest, Youtube, Twitch, etc), where anonymous internet usage isn't possible(must show ID for even an internet cafe), and where mass topical censorship is legally required. What we had in the US/Europe is debate over what extreme edge cases and fringe ideologies meet the minimal threshold to be considered dangerous enough to society to stamp out, and even then every instance is met with great debate and pushback. Some people make "careers" out of making hateful replies to politicians we're objectively much freer here and better off for it.

Re: House lawmakers release anti-monopoly agenda for “a stronger online economy”

#13

the problem with “breaking up big tech” is it only breaks up american companies. it has a long run impact of letting foreign companies take over american market share

Do you have a particular example in mind or is it a theoretical concern?

I can definitely see how it could benefit foreign competitors, but at the same time the American tech giants are so largely ahead of the competition that it's hard for me to imagine a foreign competitor managing to overtake them. It might level the playing field a little bit, but it's not necessarily a bad thing, even from a US-centric point of view.

Re: House lawmakers release anti-monopoly agenda for “a stronger online economy”

#14
post #6
post #5

> Big tech has routinely suppressed conservative voices and violated consumers’ privacy,” said Rep. Gooden. “We must rein in their destructive behavior and preserve the constitutional rights of all Americans.” First, this whole suppressing conservatives voices thing is just totally unhinged from reality. The few tiny examples of this violate clearly defined platform rules (which pale in comparison to the giant gain o…

I thought you meant banning speech of your political enemies is unhinged from reality until I realised you meant the opposite

https://cyber.harvard.edu/node/99982

Just one of many analyses that have showed how the right in the US has majorly gained from being able to share misinformation and live in filter bubbles by platforms like Facebook and Twitter. The idea that Twitter/FB have political enemies is not supported by how they’ve been used, and is inviting an over-politicization of American life. They’re private businesses… not political affiliates.

Re: House lawmakers release anti-monopoly agenda for “a stronger online economy”

#15

the problem with “breaking up big tech” is it only breaks up american companies. it has a long run impact of letting foreign companies take over american market share

Historically, breaking up monopolies has been very good for the end consumer. Bell Labs and Standard Oil both ended up being good things.

Instead of breaking them up though, we should simply be more stringent with anti trust hearings and merger approvals. There have been a few mergers recently that absolutely shouldn’t have been approved.

Re: House lawmakers release anti-monopoly agenda for “a stronger online economy”

#16
post #10

the problem with “breaking up big tech” is it only breaks up american companies. it has a long run impact of letting foreign companies take over american market share

If the premise is it makes the companies stronger through competition, this isn't a concern, right?

That isn’t the premise at all. It makes the market stronger through competition. Typically it makes the company itself weaker since it no longer can leverage power in one market to corner another.

Re: House lawmakers release anti-monopoly agenda for “a stronger online economy”

#17

the problem with “breaking up big tech” is it only breaks up american companies. it has a long run impact of letting foreign companies take over american market share

From where? Not Europe, where they don't have any of these companies, and have even more stringent regulations. China or Russia then? Easy, just ban their services like they do for ours.

Everything you touch or use has a component going through china

Re: House lawmakers release anti-monopoly agenda for “a stronger online economy”

#18
post #6
post #5

> Big tech has routinely suppressed conservative voices and violated consumers’ privacy,” said Rep. Gooden. “We must rein in their destructive behavior and preserve the constitutional rights of all Americans.” First, this whole suppressing conservatives voices thing is just totally unhinged from reality. The few tiny examples of this violate clearly defined platform rules (which pale in comparison to the giant gain o…

I thought you meant banning speech of your political enemies is unhinged from reality until I realised you meant the opposite

It is though. Imagine if every online forum was forced to promote government propaganda. That's not free speech. So to some degree, forum discretion is speech.

Re: House lawmakers release anti-monopoly agenda for “a stronger online economy”

#19

Odds any of it gets out of committee? It seems a greater priority of this Congress is social reforms and the President and VP also have other priorities that are keeping Congress’ attention

Now the negotiations start -- which means FAANG paying off, and playing one off the other, each party to water down the actual legislation. If they manage to get this passed and signed, politicians get to claim "bipartisanship" (or not), FAANG will get the regulatory capture they're seeking, and the media will convince the public that everything has been done in the public's best interests.

Re: House lawmakers release anti-monopoly agenda for “a stronger online economy”

#20

the problem with “breaking up big tech” is it only breaks up american companies. it has a long run impact of letting foreign companies take over american market share

Bullshit. We have the same anti-trust power over foreign companies operating in America. We've never used it because we've never needed to. For the companies that don't operate in America, but import into America, we can and regularly do impose import restrictions and quotas.
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