Slashdot Mirror
Elizabeth Warren Calls To Break Up Facebook, Google, and Amazon
Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren is proposing to break up technology companies, including Amazon.com, Google and Facebook, calling them anti-competitive behemoths that are crowding out competition. From a report: "Twenty-five years ago, Facebook, Google, and Amazon didn't exist. Now they are among the most valuable and well-known companies in the world," Warren wrote in a post on the blogging platform Medium. "It's a great story -- but also one that highlights why the government must break up monopolies and promote competitive markets." Warren's call also comes as Democrats have begun to plan for increased oversight of tech companies after winning control of the House in the 2018 midterm elections. On Wednesday, House and Senate Democrats introduced legislation to establish strong net neutrality protections that would look to prevent major service providers from using their power to manipulate how users experience the internet. Update: In a statement, Warren's team said that the proposal would also apply to Apple. "They would have to structurally separate -- choosing between, for example, running the App Store or offering their own apps," a spokesperson said.
Warren has to say something to separate herself from the throngs of Democratic Presidential hopefuls, and elevate her campaign into the limelight, but she doesn't really have a clue what her proposal would do.
Internet neutrality is poorly understood by Washington, and there would be throngs of salivating international competitors for the void created if the US government handicaps their domestic tech industry.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
Separate the networks and prohibit them from selling to users, or having exclusive contracts. Then we have competing networks (though sometimes it might be cable vs dsl), and competing providers on top of the networks.
Break up Facebook? Why not just close it down? Facebook is a drain on humanity for being the megaphone of ignorance and narcissism.
I don't think Trump has a chance
You don't understand American Politics. Trump didn't have a chance last time either. Almost all the Media Pundits were wrong last time, and they are wrong for all the same reasons this time.
And Democrats have gone Batshit Crazy and Nancy Pelosi is looking like the most grownup in the crowd.
The fact that Warren is still viable after her "I'm an Indian. No I never claimed to be Indian. Hey look, I have less Indian than most Americans that proves I'm Indian, but I am not claiming to be Indian" stunt is proof how bat shit crazy they are.
The rampant Anti-Semitism in the party is fracturing the Jewish part of their coalition.
Blacks are starting to figure out that after 60 years of "civil rights" that the Democrats aren't really supportive. Now with "Hey look, Illegal Aliens are the preferred minority" bit, more and more are realizing that the Democrats were the real racists all along, only courting the Black vote every other and four years, while ignoring them during off election years.
Hell, even Californians and New Yorkers are starting to bail on their Liberal states, the only problem is they haven't figured out that Taxing People to death (and beyond) isn't productive and are taking their stupid ideas with them.
America is having boom years, record Employment, Jobs, wage Growth .... If Trump ran SIMPLY on that, he'll win in a landslide.
And the tired "America and Trump Supporters are Racist" tag line by liberals is all but gone after Covington Catholic boys and Jussie Smollett proves that is the best the media can find in "racism" category are FAKE and fraudulent. THAT is the best they can actually find. Meanwhile the actual violence by Antifa Types and deranged left-wing loons are largely panned as "Not that common" (but happen way more often than racist violence)
Which of the confirmed candidates do you think has a chance?
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
It's a special screen protector...called a smoke screen
This canard again? Antitrust laws aren't just about monopolies, they're about anticompetitive behavior in general.
Amazon right now controls roughly half the online retailing in the US and had been driving local retailers out of business with questionable business practices. Increasingly they are the option for many purchases.
Worse is that after driving Border's out of business and destroying the book store industry they're opening physical bookstores and getting involved with other retail establishments.
Antitrust laws work best when they're enforced before a company can bankrupt entire industries.
You're thinking of Amazon only as on online retailer. The proposed breakup would involve their cloud services, which they're one of the largest players in, potentially Alexa/voice computing, subscription services like Prime Video and music, etc.