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Tim Berners-Lee says tech giants may have to be split up

reuters.com

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Re: Tim Berners-Lee says tech giants may have to be split up

#81

Post by [deleted] »

mattlondon wrote: post #41
ajvs wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your solutions are not enough because Facebook owns Instagram and WhatsApp - they buy out new social media so they're always in control. In Europe at least everyone uses WhatsApp and no-one texts anymore - they're too pervasive to avoid.

Just dont use them, like you dont use MySpace. There is nothing forcing people to use them, and nothing outright preventing a new competitor. WhatsApp was a startup competitor at one stage too - it competed well enough to grow big enough to compete with Facebook & Google. Sure Facebook brought them out, but what is to stop the next WhatsApp? Likewise MySpace was too pervasive not to use at one point too, yet look at…

[deleted]

Re: Tim Berners-Lee says tech giants may have to be split up

#82

Post by noetic_techy »

growtofill wrote: post #6
noetic_techy wrote: post #4

I agree. Having trillion dollar valuation companies dominate the internet is akin to letting Standard Oil dominate a resource, or monopolies dominate the emergence of railroads. You have to recognize these technological emergence's when they occur, because typically they will be unlike anything we've seen before. I would argue Social Media is one of those emergence's. Smartphones arguably another. Ideally, I would li…

What's wrong with smartphones?

You only have 2 choices for mobile OS, dominated by Apple and Google.

Re: Tim Berners-Lee says tech giants may have to be split up

#83

Post by macintux »

balozi wrote: post #75
majani wrote: post #39

I think the main issue that has allowed the likes of Google and Facebook to grow to a dangerous size is the ability to scale globally with minimal resistance from other countries. As time goes by, I start to realize that China's great firewall may have had some visionary thinking behind it, and other countries may follow suit in future to enable their citizens to take part in the digital revolution.

I'm sorry, but yours is supremely paternalistic analysis borne of a believe that your fellow citizens are too stupid to have agency or act in their own interests. And there is nothing visionary about China's great firewall since aristocrats have been trying to control the surfs since time immemorial by controlling communication. There is a reason antebellum slave owners did not want their slaves to learn how to read.

> aristocrats have been trying to control the surfs

This humorous typo brought to mind the anecdote of King Canute and the tide.

Re: Tim Berners-Lee says tech giants may have to be split up

#84

Post by criddell »

whatshisface wrote: post #37
gambler wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>You don’t need Facebook or Instagram or Twitter or any of that other crap. You didn't need Microsoft products in the 90s. Except you did if you wanted to do serious work. That's why they were targeted by antitrust regulation. Exactly the same situation here, except Facebook and co have much more control over their product and can directly influence public opinion, not just software.

> Except you did if you wanted to do serious work. What am I missing out on by avoiding social media entirely?

Lots of people in the entertainment business are expected to be able to promote stuff via their social media channels. For example, if two actors are up for a role and one has a hundred followers and the other has a million, the more followed actor may have an edge.

On a more personal level, you might not see your nephew's piano recital.

Re: Tim Berners-Lee says tech giants may have to be split up

#85

Post by vlunkr »

bilbo0s wrote: post #70
WC3w6pXxgGd wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you trust governments so much?

To be fair, all sides trust the government. We're trusting the government to go in and properly split up a company. Or you're trusting the government to properly regulate a company. The people who don't trust the government, don't want the government to take ANY action. They believe the market will solve the problem.

So all sides trust the government except for the ones that don't

Re: Tim Berners-Lee says tech giants may have to be split up

#86

Post by bilbo0s »

vlunkr wrote: post #85
bilbo0s wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, all sides trust the government. We're trusting the government to go in and properly split up a company. Or you're trusting the government to properly regulate a company. The people who don't trust the government, don't want the government to take ANY action. They believe the market will solve the problem.

So all sides trust the government except for the ones that don't

And the ones that don't, have not stated their position in this discussion.

So all sides presenting in this discussion, trust the government.

Re: Tim Berners-Lee says tech giants may have to be split up

#87

Post by balozi »

macintux wrote: post #83
balozi wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sorry, but yours is supremely paternalistic analysis borne of a believe that your fellow citizens are too stupid to have agency or act in their own interests. And there is nothing visionary about China's great firewall since aristocrats have been trying to control the surfs since time immemorial by controlling communication. There is a reason antebellum slave owners did not want their slaves to learn how to read.

> aristocrats have been trying to control the surfs This humorous typo brought to mind the anecdote of King Canute and the tide.

Hehehe...yeah, happens sometimes. Thanks for catching that, fellow serf.

Re: Tim Berners-Lee says tech giants may have to be split up

#88

Post by arendtio »

WC3w6pXxgGd wrote: post #55
arendtio wrote: post #20

I am not sure, but sometimes I think splitting the companies is not even what we need. Instead, companies with > $1 billion annual revenue should be bound by law to built federated platforms and provide the software to participate in such a network. I mean, you could split up Google into Search, Youtube, and Mail. But in the end, Youtube would still use Analytics and provide Search with all the data they need for the…

Why do you trust governments so much?

Where did I say something about 'trust' and 'government'? Seriously, I don't get the connection.

Re: Tim Berners-Lee says tech giants may have to be split up

#90

Post by JumpCrisscross »

mattmaroon wrote: post #79

I don't think you could break them up in any meaningful way. What would you break Apple up into? The company that makes iPhones and the company that makes iPads? Or Facebook? Two social networks that get half of the population each? Breakups only make sense for vertically integrated companies. I guess you could break up Google (it's already done so itself to some extent with the Alphabet reorg) but not in a way that'…

> What would you break Apple up into?

Apple the device manufacturer and iTunes (or whatever) the streaming content service provider.

> Or Facebook?

Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp.

> I guess you could break up Google

Alphabet makes this easy. YouTube, Cloud Compute and the other things.

> it's basically a natural monopoly

Natural monopolies don’t have to acquire potential competitors to protect their flanks. Facebook minus Instagram would be very different today.

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