Elizabeth Warren Proposes Breaking Up Tech Giants Like Amazon

Post by astine » Fri, Mar 08, 2019, 4:42 PM UTC

marricks wrote: post #272

psadauskas wrote: post #211

How about going after Comcast and Verizon first, the actual tech monopolies ? I already don’t use Facebook, I buy things online from places other than Amazon, and have email accounts that aren’t hosted by Google. However, all of that goes over Comcast’s network because that’s my only viable choice for Internet service. Also, while FAANG occasionally do things I don’t approve of, they don’t actively lobby congress for…

Why not both? Dumping on someone’s policy because you don’t who they target first doesn’t really help. God knows I’d trust her to break up ISPs before pretty much any other candidate.

Post by dbmikus » Fri, Mar 08, 2019, 4:43 PM UTC

jhall1468 wrote: post #256

wybiral wrote: post #52

Google/Facebook/Amazon have the power to push any startup competition out of the market in ways that are hard to even enumerate. Think about all of the services, devices, and standards that they control. Watching the fanboys defend their favorite tech giant is incredible. These companies are not behaving in the markets or people's best interest and they are way too big, at a scale that dwarfs most of the worlds organ…

> Watching the fanboys defend their favorite tech giant is incredible. These companies are not behaving in the markets or people's best interest and they are way too big, at a scale that dwarfs most of the worlds organizations. It's not illegal to be big, it's illegal to use your influence to prevent competition in a way that's illegal. There's zero evidence of that, which is why she's talking about a new law. And pl…

Post by pradn » Fri, Mar 08, 2019, 4:44 PM UTC

Permit wrote: post #182

> The parallel she uses to make her case is the breakup of Microsoft, which she weirdly calls “the tech giant of its time” (Microsoft is still a tech giant), and holds as perhaps the last example when government went toe to toe with the technology industry. > “The government’s antitrust case against Microsoft helped clear a path for Internet companies like Google and Facebook to emerge,” Warren writes. In what way wa…

Post by sonnyblarney » Fri, Mar 08, 2019, 4:45 PM UTC

basch wrote: post #283

sonnyblarney wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, they are not monopolies in the classical sense, so the regulatory position has to be much more nuanced. But there are issues: + Amazon uses profits from AWS to dump in other sectors, selling goods and services below market value. The weird situation could mean Amazon pumps many billion dollars a year into pushing major grocers (who operate on thin margins) out of business. This is not good for anyone - but it's…

Predatory pricing to push companies out of business is absolutely illegal, and covered under anti-trust law. It's also very hard to prove without getting the intent in writing.

Post by hangonhn » Fri, Mar 08, 2019, 4:46 PM UTC

skrebbel wrote: post #277

mabbo wrote: post #97

There's precedent to this in the USA. The US Government once passed regulations that caused one of the largest companies in America to break up into three smaller companies. Today those, three companies are entirely independent, employ over 400,000 people combined, and have a combined net work of over $400B. Those companies are Boeing Aircraft (153k employees, $244B market value), United Technologies (202k employees,…

How would this work in practice though? Eg Amazon. Bezos is a major shareholder. Imagine splitting AWS from the retail arm, which I guess would be a sensible split point. If Bezos controls both, then what would really change? I'm not critical to the idea nor supportive - I'm just curious to learn more.