When corporations are too big, this cause the same kind of bloat, corruptions and anti-innovative climate as when states are controlled by too powerful bureaucracies.
There is a threshold, of course, but unfortunately we've allowed a few companies to go well past this deleterious threshold.
Capitalism works best when there's a wide spread of power and wealth is not too concentrated. There can't be proper markets with monopoly or monopsony.
Just this past week they straight up lied to me about trade-ins. I documented the story here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24486769
acquisition is also innovation. It's a skill, and highly sought after - whether to build or buy. There is someone (or multiple) keeping an eye on inorganic growth via acquisitions. The plan was in place to have Maps etc. So, while building road map or having long term discussions - they decided to get a head-start by going via acquisition route. Remember, they did not stop at acquisition or it did not die because the long term was already in place.
In what universe is Twitter any type of monopoly that needs to be reigned in by the government?
But Amazon, Google, Apple and Facebook have too much power in their hands.
But isn’t telling that the administration is going after Twitter and not Apple? Could it possibly be that Cook has kissed the golden ring plenty of times and Twitter is pushing back?
You should be wary of government no matter which side you on. Since the government has started meddling in tech in the 90s, has any good law been passed by Democrats or Republicans?
Suppose some company had cornered the web search market, and nobody would even try to use some other web search, and used that position to control advertising and all sorts of other access to the web. Perhaps they even come to control the most commonly used web browser; the most commonly used mobile OS. In that environment, where a single company controls the OS and the search and the vast majority of access to the web, are you really more fearful of "eminent domain" than you are of the company wiping you out before you have a chance to capture a piece of the pie by our competing them?
When was the last time a tech company had to worry about civil forfeiture or eminent domain?
You’ll have to excuse me if I am more worried about a corrupt government (Republican and Democratic) that repeatedly uses it power unfairly.
The real power is controlling the user's identity. Think about all the hundreds of places where one would need to replace a "@gmail.com" address. To say nothing of all the places where one used to use "login with Facebook" and where using another method of logging in means losing the previous account.
Reporters spend about 25 hours a day checking twitter. In most coverage of any tech politics, you're going to see twitter grouped in there as a tech leader, because most reporters feel like it must be just as important as facebook. The numbers obviously disagree, but the attitude can easily spread from the coverage to discussions like this.
It's important to make sure the people in power have their priorities straight. The government is already set up to make the country a better place for all. Corporations cannot fulfill this purpose.
And as for twitter, a lot of tech companies these days are vertically integrated monopolies. That means they have a diverse collection of proprietary services which lack inter-operability and stifle innovation and economic development. For example, how microsoft releases inferior versions of almost every kind of software imaginable, in an attempt to keep all people inside their ecosystem. This is what the original anti-trust suit against microsoft was about. Microsoft was found guilty of holding a monopoly multiple times. They only got away with it because they kept appealing until they found themselves in front of a weak judge. Does twitter have this kind of monopoly? I'm not sure. Amazon certainly could be broken up into a few different companies, as could microsoft, apple, google, easily.
In the history of the US, when have the people in power ever had their priorities straight?
Before the Civil War? During segregation? The War on Crime? The War on Drugs? When interracial marriage (miscegenation) was illegal? When homosexuality was a crime (laws against “fornication”)? The only western country that still has the death penalty?
Even in the context of “regulating tech” it’s clear that the current administration is only going against companies it doesn’t like for some reason.
It's important for all of us to have goals and act in a way that is goal-oriented.
Because of the 2 Senator per state structure of the Senate, 40%+ of the Senate represents 25% of the population. The senate confirms both judges with lifetime appointments and cabinet members. We also have seen twice in the last 20 years where the President won while losing the popular vote.
Also because of the media that generally ignored the poor and minorities before everyone had a video camera in their pocket, thanks to Big Tech, and a platform to stream it live without gatekeepers, again thanks to Big Tech. Even the people who would care weren’t informed. If you were White, middle class and above why wouldn’t you believe that police are always fair and trust the word of police?
On a personal note, seeing how myself and friends who are people of color, gay, etc have been treated by Big Tech and comparing that to the government - yeah I trust Big Tech a lot more.
The government and the MSM have been much worse than any private corporation with respect to misinformation with much more deadly consequences than any private corporation. I’m not referring to just “the liberal media”.
You're ignoring how social media has decentralized the misinformation. Anyone can start posting and people operate on such a purely emotional level, that facts really don't matter. If I was working foreign intelligence, trying to destroy the United States, I would do exactly what qanon is doing. I've been watching that shitshow spiral out of control in slow motion for the past 4 years and social media was an integral part. The way algorithms funnel people into information bubbles. How they engage by showing people inflammatory things. There are people in your neighborhood right now who literally think democrats worship satan and eat babies for power (which is what nazis said about the jews btw). They didnt catch that virus by watching TV news, or reading the paper; they learned it on social media.
Facts don't care about your feelings. I'm not going to revise American history just because you feel ashamed or uncomfortable. I value truth. Maybe stop judging yourself for the crimes of the past. Maybe stop using American history as a stupid prop to make you feel good about yourself.
At the end of the day, if you really want to ignore what happened, that just makes you ignorant. All that means is I know more about our country than you do. It means that when I say I fuckin love America, I actually mean it. Not like you, where you could only love this country if it was some safe-space-hugbox that didn't challenge your fragile ego.
My still living parents grew up in the segregated south. Laws against miscegenation were still in effect 7 years before I was born.
Laws against “fornication” weren’t struck down until the 80s.
Today the “War on Crime/Drugs” is disproportionately applied to minorities. Today the US has 21% of all incarcerated people in the world.