CommentsBIG TECH TALK - “Today’s big tech companies have too much power — too much power over our economy, our society, and our democracy,” wrote Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) during her failed presidential run in 2019.
“They’ve bulldozed competition, used our private information for profit, and tilted the playing field against everyone else. And in the process, they have hurt small businesses and stifled innovation.”
She also noted that “America has a long tradition of breaking up companies when they have become too big and dominant — even if they are generally providing good service at a reasonable price.” One of her proposals called to “unwind anti-competitive mergers,” including Amazon (Whole Foods, Zappos), Facebook (WhatsApp, Instagram) and Google (Waze, Nest, DoubleClick).
Well, in early June, Republicans and Democrats signed on to a series of five bills that could significantly limit such big tech companies like Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google from using their control over multiple business lines to favor their own products or to suppress rivals. It would set up a mechanism by which a giant conglomerate could be broken up if it didn’t comply.
The proposed legislation could significantly limit the ability of any of the four big tech companies to complete large mergers, would raise the cost of filing for their clearance and would mandate them to make it easier for users to leave their platforms with their data intact.
The potential consequences of the the proposed legislation could be significant: it could stop Google from promoting YouTube in its search results; prohibit Amazon from selling products on its marketplace that compete directly with third-party seller listings; require Apple to relax its restrictions on iOS app developers; and block Facebook from acquiring nascent companies for the purpose of stifling future rivals.
Another of Warren’s proposals involved re-designating “companies with an annual global revenue of $25 billion or more and that offer to the public an online marketplace, an exchange, or a platform for connecting third parties would be designated as ‘platform utilities.’”
Going further, she argued that “these companies would be prohibited from owning both the platform utility and any participants on that platform. Platform utilities would be required to meet a standard of fair, reasonable, and nondiscriminatory dealing with users. Platform utilities would not be allowed to transfer or share data with third parties.”
On June 6th, Ohio’s Republican Attorney General, Dave Yost, must have heard Warren’s message in his ear for he filed a lawsuit asking the Delaware County’s Common Pleas Court to declare Google a public utility. He said it was time called for “reining in the ways the powerful search engine provides search results to Ohioans.”
“Google uses its dominance of internet search to steer Ohioans to Google’s own products–that’s discriminatory and anti-competitive,” Yost added. “When you own the railroad or the electric company or the cellphone tower, you have to treat everyone the same and give everybody access.”
Ohio is the first state in the country to bring such a lawsuit.
(Article written by David Rosen from CounterPunch.org) Photograph Source: Tony Webster – CC BY 2.0
