As Congress once again demands that Silicon Valley crack down on speech, the Director of Research at the American Economic Liberties Project outlines the real problem, and better solutions.
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At last, the regime that enabled Amazon’s monopoly power is crumbling (The Guardian)
It is long past time for policymakers to fight corporate concentration. Fortunately, there is good reason to think they will soon do so
This week, Amazon announced that Jeff Bezos will no longer be chief executive of the corporation but will instead take the position of “executive chairman”. Andy Jassy, who runs the highly profitable Amazon Web Services cloud computing division, will take the title.
Continue readingDonald Trump being banned from social media is a dangerous distraction (The Guardian)
Facebook, Google and Twitter peddle extremism for profit. They must be broken up – if not, worse is coming
In the wake of Donald Trump’s instigation of a shocking attack on the US Capitol, it’s easy to demand that Trump be barred from social media.
“These corporations should announce a permanent ban of his accounts,” said Representative Bennie Thompson, chair of the House homeland security committee. “Nothing short of that will meet this moment.”
Indeed, Facebook, Google and Twitter have taken action, suspending the president from their platforms or removing videos.
Continue readingThe US government wants to break up Facebook. Good – it’s long overdue (The Guardian)
America broke up logging companies in the 1840s, Standard Oil in the 1910s, and AT&T in the 1980s. It’s time to take on big tech
This week the government filed a ground-breaking antitrust suit against Facebook, seeking to break up the corporation for monopolistic practices. The suit comes on the heels of a similar case against Google, as well as an aggressive Democrat-authored congressional report recommending taking apart not just Google and Facebook, but Apple and Amazon as well.
Continue readingThe Ink: We can have democracy or we can have Facebook, but we can’t have both w/Anand Giridharadas
Would Joe Biden Bust Up Big Tech? (Inc.)
The former vice president is an institutionalist, not a trustbuster. But unlike his former boss in the White House, he has no warm spot for Silicon Valley.
How US lawmakers plan to tackle big tech
Exponential View
Monopolization as a Challenge for Both Parties (The American Compass)
Two Federal Reserve economists have just come out with a paper on the social consequences of widespread monopolization of markets by large corporations. And the short story is, nothing good. The paper suggests that elevated market power causes:
Continue readingHow wealth is breaking democracy (Matt Stoller on Tangle)
Matt Stoller talks Big Tech, monopolies, and how America has failed.
Big Tech Reveals the Flaw in Citizens United (American Compass)
Last week, the House Antitrust Subcommittee grilled the CEOs of four large technology platforms – Apple, Amazon, Google, and Facebook – for five and a half hours, focusing on the market power these corporations have accumulated over the last fifteen to twenty years. Typically such hearings are superficial and partisan, with the Republicans and Democrats engaging in spats over annoying and largely irrelevant details. But this time, something unusual happened. The hearing was incredibly substantive, and members on both sides of the aisle focused on the market power wielded by these giants.
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