Facebook, Google and other tech giants to face antitrust investigation by US House lawmakers

[coasterghost]

I do apologize in advance to the mods. 

 

Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/06/03/facebook-google-other-tech-giants-face-antitrust-investigation-by-house-lawmakers/

 

Press Release: https://cicilline.house.gov/press-release/judiciary-committee-launches-investigation-competition-digital-markets

 

Quote

The probe, announced Monday by Rep. David Cicilline (R.I.), the leader of the House’s top competition panel, is expected to be far reaching and comes at a moment when Democrats and Republicans find themselves in rare alignment on the idea that the tech industry has been too unregulated for too long. The sentiment spurred a sharp sell-off in tech stocks to start the week.

Cicilline said the investigation won’t target one specific tech company, but rather focus on the broad belief that the “Internet is broken,” he told reporters. In doing so, he pointed out problematic practices at tech giants such as Google, which has faced sanctions in Europe for prioritizing its services in search over rivals, and Facebook, which Cicilline criticized for cloning and acquiring competitors to ensure its continued dominance in social networking.

Amazon and Apple also could figure into the committee’s early plans, he said, cautioning the goal is a broader look at the industry.

 

 

I do agree with the plans to investigate into a lot of the companies on the Silicon Valley for their monopolistic values. The biggest part to me, that it seems the press is downplaying is the quote from the press release: 

Quote

“The growth of monopoly power across our economy is one of the most pressing economic and political challenges we face today. Market power in digital markets presents a whole new set of dangers,” said Antitrust Subcommittee Chairman David N. Cicilline (D-RI). “After four decades of weak antitrust enforcement and judicial hostility to antitrust cases, it is critical that Congress step in to determine whether existing laws are adequate to tackle abusive conduct by platform gatekeepers or whether we need new legislation to respond to this challenge.”  

 

The Committee’s investigation will focus on three main areas:

• Documenting competition problems in digital markets;
• Examining whether dominant firms are engaging in anti-competitive conduct; and
• Assessing whether existing antitrust laws, competition policies, and current enforcement levels are adequate to address these issues.

 

While I do hope that there is good from this, I wonder how it would play forth into right to repair. But I’m weary that we will solely focus on the Internet, and neglect the actions such as Apples where it’s nearly impossible to preform a repair yourself, as it’s hard to get the parts. All I can say, is let’s hope there is something good that comes from this. While it does appear that they are focusing solely on the digital market, I do have hope they can expand it to the ability to repair our devices.  

[ARikozuM]

Fucking YES!

 

 

[mr moose]

Let me guess, google ad services are tearing shreds off of all the more conventional advertising mediums and they have realised there is going to be a glut in tax revenue if newspapers, magazines and free to air tv all die.    Also he who controls the ads controls the content.

 

 

[Trik'Stari]

About fucking time.

 

Break them ALL into teensy tiny little pieces and bar them from ever merging (or is it mergering?) again. With anyone.

 

Forever.

 

We need a full list of every company under they are investigating. We, as users, need to flood congress, ALL of congress, with example after example of their abuse of power.

 

Flood congress, and the media, and social media with all the evidence we can find. So much that not even the best left/right wing spin doctor can try to turn this into something else.

[Trik'Stari]

4 minutes ago, comander said:

Imagine you're a 26 year old facebook employee with $500k of of RSUs that'll suddenly become worth much less if there's a breakup... 

Probably near doomsday over there right now. 

I find that image incredibly hilarious.

[Rune]

To be honest, I'd rather see this happen to the hardware companies instead of software. You don't have to use Google. Or Facebook. Or any of the other shitty services out there. But I have zero choice of ISP. Its ridiculous what they can get away with simply because they agree not to compete with each other.

[ARikozuM]

2 minutes ago, Rune said:

To be honest, I'd rather see this happen to the hardware companies instead of software. You don't have to use Google. Or Facebook. Or any of the other shitty services out there. But I have zero choice of ISP. Its ridiculous what they can get away with simply because they agree not to compete with each other.

We don’t have a choice with Google or Amazon either. 

[Rune]

22 minutes ago, ARikozuM said:

We don’t have a choice with Google or Amazon either. 

I haven't bought anything from Amazon in close to 10 years. Don't use any streaming services either. For the most part, all I get from google is email and directions. I can live fairly easily without those things because there are alternatives. If I tell spectrum to fuck off, I have nothing else to fall back on.

[ARikozuM]

1 minute ago, Rune said:

I haven't bought anything from Amazon in close to 10 years. Don't use any streaming services either. For the most part, all I get from google is email and directions. I can live fairly easily without those things because there are alternatives. If I tell spectrum to fuck off, I have nothing else to fall back on.

We should do the same for ISP, but you can’t really escape Google, Amazon, Facebook ads without going through hoops.

[Stefan Payne]

Was only a question of time until they looked into Google and Facebook.

The ads are one part of this action.

But the question is:
What else will they find??

 

And will there consequences for other Companys as well, who worked closely with Google and Facebook??

[Taf the Ghost]

As a practical matter, actually breaking up companies tends to makes the owners even richer. (The AT&T breakup actually produced massively larger companies, but also resulted in more jobs and cheaper tech.) So don't weep for anyone's stock options.

 

Still, if it takes a years long temper tantrum because it was "her turn" and that leads to massive sanction on Google & Facebook, hey, take the good things when it comes your way.

[Tellos]

3 hours ago, Rune said:

To be honest, I'd rather see this happen to the hardware companies instead of software. You don't have to use Google. Or Facebook. Or any of the other shitty services out there. But I have zero choice of ISP. Its ridiculous what they can get away with simply because they agree not to compete with each other.

Actually anti monopoly laws ensure there are places ISPs cannot expand unless they give another place up. It isint some special agreement from ISPs it's government telling us you cant go there. You think Comcast likes not being able to expand?