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posted by mrpg on Tuesday September 25 2018, @11:31AM   Printer-friendly
from the mary-is-merry-cause-she's-gonna-marry dept.

White House considering launching an antitrust probe on Google and Facebook:

The growing tension between U.S. President Donald Trump and large internet companies is not likely to peter out anytime soon. A draft executive order that could potentially target Google, Facebook, and other social media companies with an antitrust case is said to be in the early stages of work.

The draft order, obtained by Bloomberg, is meant to authorize federal regulators and law enforcers to investigate the business practices of the internet giants for potential antitrust violations. It is worth pointing out, however, that the draft is not official yet and has not been formed as part of the White House's policy-making process, according to Lindsey Walters, deputy White House press secretary.

Additionally, it has not been reviewed yet by any government agency. But once the draft is signed, specific government agencies are mandated within a month to provide recommendations for actions intended to uphold "competition among online platforms and address online platform bias." It doesn't specify the names of the companies, however.


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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by meustrus on Tuesday September 25 2018, @02:19PM

    by meustrus (4961) on Tuesday September 25 2018, @02:19PM (#739678)

    Unfortunately, web companies, coming from the deregulation-fueled disruption tech boom that started in the 80s, have so much power ceded to them by US law that they are now de facto governments themselves. Apple has more cash on hand than most countries. As such, when they take it upon themselves to decide what sort of communication ought to be preferred over others, their stranglehold on the means of communication itself makes "censorship" an apt description.

    Of course, the people around here that think Google and the like use this power to further leftist views are horribly naïve. They do what corporations have always done: favor their own profits above all else. They fight to deregulate their own industries, make their labor costs cheaper, make things hard for their competition, and maybe sometimes pick up some political points on popular issues that don't otherwise affect them.

    In other words, the politics of these companies has more in common with Reagan than anybody else, but still cannot be reduced to left- or right-wing. And like all true power players, they give money to both sides to keep everybody friendly.

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