Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by takyon on Saturday March 09 2019, @12:12AM   Printer-friendly
from the monopoly-money dept.

CNet:

"Today's big tech companies have [too much power over] our economy, our society, and our democracy," wrote Warren in a blog post. "They've bulldozed competition, used our private information for profit, and tilted the playing field against everyone else. And in the process, they have hurt small businesses and stifled innovation."

Warren said that big tech companies use mergers to swallow competition and sell products on their own e-commerce platforms, which hurt smaller businesses' opportunities to succeed. Weak antitrust enforcement also resulted in "a dramatic reduction" in competition and innovation in the tech industry, according to Warren's blog post.

With conservative voices decrying Big Tech censorship, internet activists decrying privacy violations, and now Senator Warren calling for outright dismemberment, Big Tech might be in for a rocky stretch of road.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by jmorris on Saturday March 09 2019, @02:27AM (6 children)

    by jmorris (4844) on Saturday March 09 2019, @02:27AM (#811876)

    I'm ready to see em broken up. They are all just too dangerous to allow to live in their current form.

    Facebook was founded the same day the govenment shut down their "Lifelog" program, then Zuck brings in the DARPA admin who was responsible?
    Google's founding is equally troubling. Microsoft isn't even an American corporation in any meaningful sense of the word anymore. Amazon is so far in bed with the government it can be hard to see where one ends and the other starts. And Apple is clearly a menace to the world.

    As to the morality of the government breaking up corporations, we settled that with the old time "trust busting" of yore. Publicly traded corporations are artificial government created entities. If the government lacks the authority to regulate its own creations, who does? Corporations were originally intended to allow raising large amounts of money to support capital intensive heavy industry. But there aren't any projects currently or proposed that require one entity to have control over a trillion dollars. I'd support a hard upper limit of $100B maximum sustained market cap. Stay over the limit for 365 consecutive days and you must file a plan to divide into two or more new entities. No one business should be worth $100B. Would put a swift end to the rampant M&A activity that is one of the key drivers of loss of competitors in the market. Inflation would push toward ever smaller entities over time.

    Perhaps make an exception for a focused entity that is doing one thing so well it is worth that much, it can exist so long as it never adds new side ventures, drops easily divided off parts, etc. Apple's iProducts division might need to be an exception for example. But lose the inhouse chip design shop to an independent entity. Lose the watch to an open API any smartwatch can talk to, etc. Would this exception be abusable?

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +3  
       Troll=1, Insightful=1, Interesting=2, Informative=1, Total=5
    Extra 'Interesting' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   5  
  • (Score: 2) by RandomFactor on Saturday March 09 2019, @02:48AM

    by RandomFactor (3682) Subscriber Badge on Saturday March 09 2019, @02:48AM (#811890) Journal

    I'm ready to see em broken up. They are all just too dangerous to allow to live in their current form.

    I agree, I'm just suffering from some cognitive dissonance I need to take out back and shoot.

    --
    В «Правде» нет известий, в «Известиях» нет правды
  • (Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Saturday March 09 2019, @03:21AM (3 children)

    by DeathMonkey (1380) on Saturday March 09 2019, @03:21AM (#811913) Journal

    So it sounds like you agree with Warren's position on this issue.

    And I think you would agree that some kind of market cap limitation on corporations is much more likely to come from the left/dems.

    So this is an honest question: Would you vote for her as president?

    • (Score: 2, Funny) by realDonaldTrump on Saturday March 09 2019, @04:12AM

      by realDonaldTrump (6614) on Saturday March 09 2019, @04:12AM (#811937) Homepage Journal

      I also agree with Senator Warren of Mass., sometimes referred to as Pocahontas (the bad version). Don't worry, we're moving very strongly to break up Big Tech. Look at Amazon, they're closing almost 100 "Physical Locations." Something they never did when Cheatin' Obama was in office. But, I will never vote for Liz. She's getting slammed because she took a bogus DNA test and it showed that she may be 1/1024, far less than the average American. Now Cherokee Nation denies her, "DNA test is useless," complete and total Fraud. Even they don’t want her. Now that her claims of being of Indian heritage have turned out to be a scam and a lie, Elizabeth Warren should apologize for perpetrating this fraud against the American Public. Harvard called her "a person of color" (amazing con), and would not have taken her otherwise. Phoney!

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 09 2019, @10:33AM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 09 2019, @10:33AM (#811988)

      So this is an honest question: Would you vote for her as president?

      I'm big on minority representation so could only give her 1/1024th of my vote.

      • (Score: 2) by RandomFactor on Saturday March 09 2019, @05:42PM

        by RandomFactor (3682) Subscriber Badge on Saturday March 09 2019, @05:42PM (#812066) Journal

        Well, it's a range, and picking the least favorable (10 generations) over the most favorable (6 generations) seems unfair.

        Maybe split the difference to 8 generations back and giver her 1/256th of your vote?

        --
        В «Правде» нет известий, в «Известиях» нет правды
  • (Score: 4, Funny) by Azuma Hazuki on Saturday March 09 2019, @04:03AM

    by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Saturday March 09 2019, @04:03AM (#811933) Journal

    All the planets must be in alignment or something. You've said something reasonable, rational, well-thought-out, well-reinforced with verifiable factual backup, and not even the least bit evil. More of this, please.

    --
    I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...