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Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin Wants Justice Department To Scrutinize Big Tech (cnbc.com)

Posted by msmash on from the urgent-attention-needed dept.

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin on Monday joined the growing chorus of government officials concerned about tech monopolies. From a report: When asked if Google is a monopoly, Mnuchin said, "These are issues that the Justice Department needs to look at seriously -- not for any one company -- but obviously as these technology companies have a greater and greater impact on the economy, I think that you have to look at the power they have," Mnuchin told CNBC's "Squawk Box." Mnuchin acknowledged that antitrust matters don't fall under his jurisdiction, but said someone ought to be looking. His comments come on the heels of a "60 Minutes" segment on Google's unparalleled market share in online search. The Sunday night spot included an interview with Jeremy Stoppelman, co-founder of Yelp, which he said "would have no shot" if it were being built today.

7 of 128 comments (clear)

  1. Any large company/industry needs scrutiny by KixWooder · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Big Tech is no better than Big Oil or Big Pharmaceutical.

    --
    I hate fat people.
  2. I see only liberals whining by SuperKendall · · Score: 1, Insightful

    The drumbeat to investigate Google and Facebook started long before Trump. In fact the current push is primarily a response to Trump winning, in part because he was able to use Facebook analytics as effectively as Obama...

    And because they helped Trump, even if inadvertently, Google and Facebook must pay. Or so goes the mantra of the day.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re:I see only liberals whining by bugs2squash · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I think the complaints against facebook are no so much about campaigns doing analysis of data so much as they are about injection of misinformation and stoking divisions. And now that it has been exploited once, even the people that exploited it woudl not want it used against them in the future.

      --
      Nullius in verba
  3. Re:I think you meant by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    what happens when the "big data" and "objective algorithms" aren't politically correct and charge blacks higher rates because they are more likely to default? remember when the government tried to use objective algorithms to set bail for criminals, but since blacks are more likely to jump bail, they were given higher bail, and it was deemed racist and shut down?

  4. Worry about the banks first by sjbe · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin on Monday joined the growing chorus of government officials concerned about tech monopolies.

    How about the Treasury Secretary worry about banks that are a proven risk to the financial system first? The tech companies didn't cause a global recession within the last 10 years or require massive government bailouts or cheat people out of their homes and savings.

  5. Re:Moscow Donald - Your Complicity with Treason by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The uranium never left the US, so you are just spreading misinformation for a known traitor.

    Congratulations on betraying your country, you fucking turncoat.

  6. Re:Remember when Microsoft was worse than Hitler? by CrashNBrn · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Good Times. When Netscape was a 25MB download, we were on 5KB/s dialup, and you were potentially downloading it via IE, which couldn't resume interrupted downloads - so after an hour and a half, maybe your download completed or maybe you had to start over again.

    Of course a handful of people discovered Opera, which at the time was a 3-5MB download and had all of Netscape's features including a mail client.