Why Did Congress Just Vote to Break Up Big Tech? • Hacker News Board

Re: Why Did Congress Just Vote to Break Up Big Tech?

#21

Post by Mirioron » Fri, Jun 25, 2021, 8:57 PM UTC

snicker7 wrote: post #15

thih9 wrote: post #5

I wonder how the "break-up bill" would be applied in practice for specific companies. Does that mean that e.g. Apple Music would now have to become a separate entity?

It means that "Apple Music" cannot rely on an "online platform" (large online service) owned by Apple. A more practical example is that Google can't run its ad-tech services in GCP. And Amazon cannot run its online store in AWS. They could, however, use each other's cloud. But not their own.

So Google has to run a second cloud service that's only used internally?

Re: Why Did Congress Just Vote to Break Up Big Tech?

#22

Post by ehnto » Fri, Jun 25, 2021, 8:58 PM UTC

snicker7 wrote: post #15

thih9 wrote: post #5

I wonder how the "break-up bill" would be applied in practice for specific companies. Does that mean that e.g. Apple Music would now have to become a separate entity?

It means that "Apple Music" cannot rely on an "online platform" (large online service) owned by Apple. A more practical example is that Google can't run its ad-tech services in GCP. And Amazon cannot run its online store in AWS. They could, however, use each other's cloud. But not their own.

That's interesting. I would say we wouldn't have AWS if Amazon couldn't have built it by scratching it's own itch. But also, couldn't Amazon just spin up an "internal" AWS style system, instead of using a competitors cloud service?

Re: Why Did Congress Just Vote to Break Up Big Tech?

#23

Post by dantheman » Fri, Jun 25, 2021, 8:59 PM UTC

stephc_int13 wrote: post #12

This is clearly needed, even if late, considering that antitrust laws are not a new thing. There is hope, we tend to forget after only a few generations, but if politicians are moving now this is because the collective opinions about big tech progressively shifted during the last decade. I might be naïve, but I think that HN played a role. And of course this is not over yet.

This is clearly not needed.

The citizens of the US are being harmed in education both primary and secondary, medicine, and in housing. These are heavily regulated industries that recieve large amounts of tax dollars - why are they not being addressed?

Re: Why Did Congress Just Vote to Break Up Big Tech?

#24

Post by wittycardio » Fri, Jun 25, 2021, 9:01 PM UTC

veerabadhra wrote: post #13

bigcorp-slave wrote: post #10

[flagged]

The anti trust break up of AT&T led to disruptive innovation, like mass produced cell phones. I personally can't wait for the AI revolution that will occur when Google is broken up. The Big Tech incumbents need to die out, because innovation stagnates in these monopolies.

Google and Facebook are amongst the most important sponsors of scientific research in the world. Why would you want to destroy that. The internet is a winner take all industry , all things considered the current winners are pretty good. Why ruin that for narrow political goals

Re: Why Did Congress Just Vote to Break Up Big Tech?

#25

Post by WalterBright » Fri, Jun 25, 2021, 9:01 PM UTC

Notably absent of is any recognition that we live today in a very global marketplace. FAANG companies are all American. If they are broken into pieces by the US government, what if that just provides opportunity for non-US companies to now fill those ecological niches?

The end result will be the US anti-trust action accomplished nothing but enabling foreign replacements.

Re: Why Did Congress Just Vote to Break Up Big Tech?

#26

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Jun 25, 2021, 9:01 PM UTC

vlovich123 wrote: post #18

ignoramous wrote: post #6

> The ACCESS Act mandates that big tech firms have to make their systems open to competitors and business rivals, in the same way that AT&T customers can talk to T-Mobile customers, or users of different email systems can communicate with one another. Okay, this is plausible, but it can turn into all kinds of mess as federated systems aren't simpler to design, build, or operate. For example, how would Signal inter-co…

Does the ACCESS act require sane pricing/lack of technical hurdles? For example, AirPlay requires HW chips that aren’t actually needed and could be done in SW. This gives Apple a non trivial economic advantage in the BOM of their products.

[deleted]

Re: Why Did Congress Just Vote to Break Up Big Tech?

#27

Post by dantheman » Fri, Jun 25, 2021, 9:02 PM UTC

veerabadhra wrote: post #13

bigcorp-slave wrote: post #10

[flagged]

The anti trust break up of AT&T led to disruptive innovation, like mass produced cell phones. I personally can't wait for the AI revolution that will occur when Google is broken up. The Big Tech incumbents need to die out, because innovation stagnates in these monopolies.

AT&T was a government granted monopoly - it was illegal to compete with them, it's not at all relevant.

Re: Why Did Congress Just Vote to Break Up Big Tech?

#28

Post by WalterBright » Fri, Jun 25, 2021, 9:03 PM UTC

veerabadhra wrote: post #13

bigcorp-slave wrote: post #10

[flagged]

The anti trust break up of AT&T led to disruptive innovation, like mass produced cell phones. I personally can't wait for the AI revolution that will occur when Google is broken up. The Big Tech incumbents need to die out, because innovation stagnates in these monopolies.

The government made it illegal to compete with AT&T. Their monopoly position was not the result of free market capitalism.

Re: Why Did Congress Just Vote to Break Up Big Tech?

#29

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Jun 25, 2021, 9:04 PM UTC

ehnto wrote: post #22

snicker7 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It means that "Apple Music" cannot rely on an "online platform" (large online service) owned by Apple. A more practical example is that Google can't run its ad-tech services in GCP. And Amazon cannot run its online store in AWS. They could, however, use each other's cloud. But not their own.

That's interesting. I would say we wouldn't have AWS if Amazon couldn't have built it by scratching it's own itch. But also, couldn't Amazon just spin up an "internal" AWS style system, instead of using a competitors cloud service?

[deleted]

Re: Why Did Congress Just Vote to Break Up Big Tech?

#30

Post by UncleOxidant » Fri, Jun 25, 2021, 9:04 PM UTC

ehnto wrote: post #14

UncleOxidant wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Either the incumbents remain entrenched because of the loopholes, or they would no longer wield undue advantage, leaving some breathing room for upstarts. Unsure if this is good or bad for software engineers. There are always unintended consequences, but it seems like it would be good in that if there are more upstarts there should also be more jobs for software engineers. The pay may (probably) won't be like what…

Not everyone would want to work at a FAANG company either. I have quietly hoped for a redistribution of software resources for a while, it's not a practically thought out hope. I just feel like the worlds software talent could do better work in more interesting and varied fields. I also think it would lead to more innovation. How many engineers aren't working on their own ideas because the insane salaries at big tech…

As someone who has never worked for a FAANG company, nor wants to (FB recruiter email I got this morning will go unanswered) the mind boggles at these $200K-$500K salaries. If I were making a salary in that range I'd think it would be possible to retire after about 5 years if one was frugal.

> I just feel like the worlds software talent could do better work in more interesting and varied fields.

Agreed, but I'm not sure how these measures will do anything to provide more interesting work. It would probably just be more of the same, but more different companies doing it.