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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: 4, Interesting) by frojack on Thursday February 22 2018, @09:56PM (4 children)
I really can't see much benefit in getting involved in this discussion, other than to say, get your rage out here on this story so that we needn't listen to it on every story.
Future rages can be summed up as TCAG (The Case Against Google) and we can all move on.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 22 2018, @10:10PM
Original AC here.
Wow frojack. You see that as rage?
Sorry to burst your bubble, but it was just a little tongue-in-cheek humor.
Like this:
Q. How many IBM types does it take to change a light bulb?
A. 100. Ten to do it, and 90 to write document number GC7500439-0001, Multitasking Incandescent Source System Facility, of which 10% of the pages state only "This page intentionally left blank", and 20% of the definitions are of the form "A ...... consists of sequences of non-blank characters separated by blanks".
Do you get it now, Frojack? I'm a little surprised, you're usually a bit quicker on the uptake.
Or perhaps even more apropos, with the added benefit of making you think you might actually have been right:
Q: How many supply-side economists does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A: None. If the government would just leave it alone,
it would screw itself in.
Have a great day, Frojack!
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Gaaark on Thursday February 22 2018, @10:18PM (1 child)
I fume over the lack of competition, not just Google.
There used to be lots of competition, now there are monopolies with big spending lobbyists and collusion. Stop politicians from accepting lobbyist money and get competition back.
Put government money behind open source projects instead of closed source spying and force companies to actually compete.
Also, don't support MS, Apple, NSA, etc in their spying while crying wolf about China/Huwaie (sp?).
We need smarter people in government (Go Trump![*cough*])
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 23 2018, @06:14PM
here, here!
(Score: 3, Interesting) by bobthecimmerian on Friday February 23 2018, @12:29AM
I'm hopeful but not optimistic that the growing investment in distributed alternatives to the centralized services will move us away from Google and it's like. Splitting Google, Facebook, or similar or giving their tech to other companies won't solve the real core problems we need to address. The core problem is that these businesses are centralized and their business models revolve around collecting customer data.