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posted by janrinok on Thursday February 22 2018, @09:04PM   Printer-friendly
from the how-find-you,-m'lud? dept.

The Case Against Google: Critics say the search giant is squelching competition before it begins. Should the government step in?

[...] 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


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 22 2018, @09:38PM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 22 2018, @09:38PM (#641992)

    So, for me, your attempt at irony falls flat.

  • (Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 22 2018, @09:52PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 22 2018, @09:52PM (#642003)

    Poe's Law is very busy today. I hope Mr. Poe had a good lunch.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 22 2018, @10:01PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 22 2018, @10:01PM (#642014)

    You seem to have an incomplete understanding of capitalism. Perhaps you should go ahead and actually read (rather than just accept the bullshit handed to you on twitter, gab and FB -- maybe talk radio too?) the relevant literature yourself?

    What's more, what we're talking about here is less about capitalism (although many would like you to think so -- and you fell for it -- sucker!) and more about oligarchy, cronyism, greed and a serious lack of ethics.

    • (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 22 2018, @10:21PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 22 2018, @10:21PM (#642031)

      The amount of Hannity koolaid consumed is directly proportional to illogical knowledge mastery.
      Ain’t no commies here in fox land. Just God, guns and Russian hookers (thanks Don!).
      Thou shalt commit adulterousnessesses. So commandth thy Don.