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[...] might have been surprised when headlines began appearing last year suggesting that Google and its fellow tech giants were threatening everything from our economy to democracy itself. Lawmakers have accused Google of creating an automated advertising system so vast and subtle that hardly anyone noticed when Russian saboteurs co-opted it in the last election. Critics say Facebook exploits our addictive impulses and silos us in ideological echo chambers. Amazon's reach is blamed for spurring a retail meltdown; Apple's economic impact is so profound it can cause market-wide gyrations. These controversies point to the growing anxiety that a small number of technology companies are now such powerful entities that they can destroy entire industries or social norms with just a few lines of computer code. Those four companies, plus Microsoft, make up America's largest sources of aggregated news, advertising, online shopping, digital entertainment and the tools of business and communication. They're also among the world's most valuable firms, with combined annual revenues of more than half a trillion dollars.
In a rare display of bipartisanship, lawmakers from both political parties have started questioning how these tech giants grew so powerful so fast. Regulators in Missouri, Utah, Washington, D.C., and elsewhere have called for greater scrutiny of Google and others, citing antitrust concerns; some critics have suggested that our courts and legislatures need to go after tech firms in the same way the trustbusters broke up oil and railroad monopolies a century ago. But others say that Google and its cohort are guilty only of delighting customers. If these tech leviathans ever fail to satisfy us, their defenders argue, capitalism will punish them the same way it once brought down Yahoo, AOL and MySpace.
[...] There's a loose coalition of economists and legal theorists who call themselves the New Brandeis Movement (critics call them "antitrust hipsters"), who believe that today's tech giants pose threats as significant as Standard Oil a century ago. "All of the money spent online is going to just a few companies now," says [Gary Reback] (who disdains the New Brandeis label). "They don't need dynamite or Pinkertons to club their competitors anymore. They just need algorithms and data."
Related: Microsoft Relishes its Role as Accuser in Antitrust Suit Against Google
Google Faces Record 3 Billion Euro EU Antitrust Fine: Telegraph
Antitrust Suit Filed Against Google by Gab.Ai
India Fines Google $21.17 Million for Abusing Dominant Position
Google's Crackdown on "Annoying" and "Disruptive" Ads Begins
(Score: 2, Interesting) by requerdanos on Thursday February 22 2018, @09:16PM (7 children)
In the late 90s, an elderly gentlemen in his 80s told me the Bible was against Google in principle, and to look it up.
That isn't exactly what I found in Genesis 11 [biblegateway.com], but it's not all that far off, either.
All the knowledge in one place, and knowledge is power.
The parallel isn't exact, because many groups of people speak many different languages, but there's translate.google.com to help with that.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday February 22 2018, @10:01PM
What I would take from that is that, we're increasingly able to communicate despite language barrier -- and increasingly able to do great things, and like the builders of the tower of babble and want to make ourselves gods.
But . . . Daniel 12:4 [biblegateway.com]
although some translations to English render it differently (NASB):
where the back and forth, and increase of knowledge are not necessarily connected.
At the "time of the end" does this mean people would overcome the language barrier and significantly increase knowledge. (maybe build a space elevator this time)
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Friday February 23 2018, @01:56AM
I'm rather sure he was talking about "the mark of the beast" from Revelations. I've heard that used in all sorts of figurative ways, but especially to cover credit cards and their use. You can say that's not specifically against Google, but I've heard enough people calling Google the internet, that I suspect he was talking about on-line purchases.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 23 2018, @08:14AM (1 child)
Citing bible as an authority... way to Godwin any thread. Save the bible for the scientists, like historians or anthropologists and wild eyed theologians.
The goog monster is a huge threat but resistance must be based on reason instead of dusty fairytales.
(Score: 2) by requerdanos on Friday February 23 2018, @04:45PM
If you consider any random "inexact parallel" to be a "cited authority," you are before long going to have some really strange beliefs. It may already be too late.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 23 2018, @08:28PM (2 children)
So the old testament god is a dick who separated people just because unity scares him?
(Score: 2) by requerdanos on Friday February 23 2018, @10:30PM
I'd say that that's a nontraditional but not fundamentally inaccurate interpretation.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 24 2018, @01:03AM
In the immortal words of the greatest prophet of a generation [wordpress.com]: