Good day all. Once upon a time, Google’s motto was “Don’t be evil.” Books were written about Google, such as “What would Google do?” by Jeff Jarvis. Back in those days, Google could do no wrong.
How times have changed. Google, Facebook, Twitter and other tech conglomerates are now being seen in the exact same way the old 19th and early 20th century monopolies were, as rapacious all controlling powers unto themselves.
Back in those days, we had the Trust Busters who broke up the likes of Standard Oil and the other monopolies. The last time a corporation was successfully broken up was the old Telephone company. Microsoft was the first tech company to face an antitrust charge and barely survived being broken up. (They had a blatantly biased judge hearing the case. Now Google and the other social media platforms are being investigated for their own monopolistic activities. Here are the details from CNBC:
Fifty attorneys general are joining an investigation into Google over possible antitrust violations, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, the initiative’s leader, announced Monday. The news confirms reports last week about the bipartisan investigation into Google’s practices. The probe includes attorneys general from 48 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. California and Alabama are not involved in the probe, Paxton said at a press conference.
The fact that Kalifornistan is not on board with this investigation comes as no surprise. The state is wholly owned by the denizens of Silicon Valley. I don’t know why Alabama isn’t a part of this. What should scare the living crap out of the tech moguls is that this isn’t a partisan issue. It’s crossing party and ideological lines.
Other attorneys general at the media conference emphasized Google’s dominance in the ad market and use of consumer data.
“When there is no longer a free market or competition, this increases prices, even when something is marketed as free, and harms consumers,” said Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody, a Republican. “Is something really free if we are increasingly giving over our privacy information? Is something really free if online ad prices go up based on one company’s control?”
Google currently controls something like 90% of internet searches. If they don’t like something, they can kill it very easily by manipulating search results. They aren’t the only ones being looked at.
An antitrust probe into Facebook was announced on Friday by New York Attorney General Letitia James, who will lead the case. Attorneys general from seven states plus the District of Columbia are participating in the Facebook investigation.
Facebook has a big problem and his name is Mark Zuckerberg. He built Facebook, and now it’s really the premier site for people. The problem with Facebook is they are manged by people who make the North Koreans look tolerant of other people’s ideas.
Facebook has a long history of banning speech they don’t like, and most of it is speech from people with a certain viewpoint. That viewpoint is decidedly NOT those of the progressive liberals managing the company. People are constantly finding themselves banned for hurting the feelings of liberal progressives social justice warriors. Interestingly, people with a left wing view are almost never banned.
The state investigations put an additional layer of pressure on both companies, which are already facing antitrust scrutiny on the federal level. Facebook confirmed an antitrust probe by the Federal Trade Commission in July after the agency slapped it with a $5 billion fine over its privacy practices. And the Department of Justice will conduct its own antitrust investigation into Google, according to The Wall Street Journal.
One of the major problems these companies are facing is their utter arrogance and disdain for pretty much everyone. The people running these companies and a significant number of their employees are firm in their beliefs that they are right and everyone else is not only wrong, but also purveyors of wrongthink. They see it as not only their right, but their duty to suppress any ideas that they consider to be bad.
They are also using their market share to control what advertisers are allowed on their platforms and what they will be allowed to sell or say. Google has already been caught suppressing ads for politicians who’s views they don’t approve of and internal memos have come out stating that they will do whatever it takes to prevent the reelection of President Trump.
So far, regulatory action on the federal level has had a minimal impact on Big Tech. The FTC recently imposed fines on both Google and Facebook — over their handling of user data — that would be considered large by most standards but represented just a small fraction of their quarterly revenues.
The FTC is totally out of their depth and honestly, doesn’t have a clue how to deal with the rapacious behaviors of Google and the other tech companies.
But antitrust, compared with privacy and consumer protection concerns, poses a more direct threat to these companies’ business models. If the federal or state probes find evidence of anti-competitive behavior at Google, for example, the company could be compelled to make its algorithms friendlier to rivals even if that eats at its own profits. It could also be forced to spin off entire business units, such as YouTube.
When Microsoft was facing their antitrust suit, the original idea was to break the company into two. One for the operating system, and one for office and other applications. Today, while Microsoft is a major player, they no longer have a lock on operating systems or office applications. (I’m currently writing this in LibreOffice Writer) One of the reasons for the alternatives like Linux and LiberOffice was the control of the markets that Microsoft had.
The focus on Google and Facebook by the state attorneys general does not mean other tech giants such as Amazon and Apple will be free from scrutiny. Sources told the Journal last week that the investigations could expand to other companies.
No, they too are being looked at Amazon is very much in the sites of the trust busters. However, this brings up a problem. How do you break some of these companies up? While Amazon has most of the online shopping presence, they don’t have it all. Yes, they have taken out a lot of local stores, however, Walmart has been doing that for 20+ years.
Amazon recently acquired Whole Foods, however, there are rumors that Amazon may sell it off. I’ve been in Whole Paycheck a few times and I wasn’t impressed. Amazon is also moving into the delivery field big time, going up against the big companies such as FedEx, UPS and the United States Postal Service. Considering how much of a menace on the roads those Amazon delivery drivers are, forcing that to be spun off may save lives. (The former Mrs. Webmaster’s car was crashed into while parked by one of those clowns and she drove off. A nice hit and run. The police got her)
Google is another company that I can’t see how they would break up. In their case it might be flat out regulating them as a utility, and that will probably backfire. Faceplant? They are starting to lose people to sites such as MeWe. (We’ve started moving over to MeWe and suggest you do so as well) Faceplant could be forced to get rid of some of their acquisitions such as WhatsApp.
Frankly, considering the gaping security holes Facebook is putting into WhatsApp, it will die off eventually. I recommend Signal as a replacement. Still, it is about time that some of these platforms get two in the turban. They are far to dangerous to things like Freedom of Speech. A nice colonoscopy by 50 AG’s will do wonders for their state of mind.
Thatisall
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~The Angry Webmaster~
