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Comment by wefarrell | Hacker News Reader

The FTC has been asleep at the wheel with tech companies in the 21st century and consumers have suffered as a result. Apple's locking consumers into their platform, Google's steering traffic towards its sites, Amazon's forcing its merchants to give them preferential treatment. These companies have too much power and we need a government who's willing to take bold steps to curb them.

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Sometime after 9/11, the US realized that it was in their best interest to have American tech juggernauts, and if they hamstrung their own tech companies with antitrust and anti-competition laws, other countries (China) would not.

That was the end of antitrust enforcement on a larger scale for US companies.

That's a backwards projection. In the early 2000s we were still blithely confident that China would just slot into a world order dominated by us. The end of history and all that.

The record was that the Bush administration came in and immediately dropped the MS antitrust case because they were 'pro-business'. I suspect GWB genuinely believed in all this.

>"Bush administration came in and immediately dropped the MS antitrust case because they were 'pro-business'"

From what I remember it was definitely Bush's doing.

That’s a claim that requires evidence. And either way you’re making a classic fallacy via the rational actor model, where you’re personifying the US and asserting that the US “realized” something.

A far more accurate take is that big business continued to consolidate money and power and successfully used political influence to neuter the regulatory agencies.

Alternatively: tech companies have used the fear of China to entrench their own power and avoid even the most reasonable forms of regulation.

Personally I would like to reign in all the smaller tech companies. Every device you buy nowadays requires a smartphone app, and they insert themselves into the equation, while doing a data grab.

What would you prefer over an app for these devices, especially for those where providing an on-device UI would be too expensive or too limiting?

Obviously an API run completely in house by the tech companies that make the phones :)

On device Web UI adds zero cost, its cheaper than App ecosystem. Its local, no registration, no data exfiltration, no remote logging.

> Every device you buy nowadays requires a smartphone app

I refuse to buy those devices.

Completely agree here. If you think the acquisitions have been the problem, splitting up those parts makes sense, primarily for Facebook, and possibly certain Amazon/Google/Apple acquisitions too. I think a separate Instagram, Waze, even Youtube, and PA Semi would all be successful on their own currently.

The other common problematic trait I'd say is some form of bad, lack of or preferential moderation with search results, misinformation, products, and apps. I think regulation like "American Innovation and Choice Online Act[1]” handles this well. If you want to be specific about Apple/Google, the OAMA[2] is good too IMO.

[1] https://cicilline.house.gov/sites/cicilline.house.gov/files/...

[2] https://www.blumenthal.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/8.11.21%20-%...

I agree, but none of this happening until we curb lobbying and reform campaign finance laws.

I fully agree but the implication is that the government is still in control. However, it’s these companies that are in control. They have people (i.e., politicians, lobbyists, judges, and other appointments) embedded into the government to do their bidding. America has been obsessed with communism and socialism infiltrating America all the while corporations have been infiltrating to get us to the current state of affairs, that of a corporatocracy.

I honestly feel that capitalism and the love of the corporation is leading the slow death of the U.S. The only way to fix things is to completely remove conflicts of interests and self-benefits and actually enforce such rules, in addition to setting term limits and other such things. However, the people that need to pass such laws are the ones who currently benefit, so it’s not gonna happen.

It’s rather unbelievable that I, as a minion, have been previously strictly held to gifts less than a certain amount (literally a couple of tens of dollars) and reports of stock holdings, but yet, former head lawyers of corporations can be appointed to now oversee those corporations. It’s mind boggling how anyone thinks that could possibly work for anyone except the corporations.

Yep, cash, lots of cash. Your cash.

https://observer.com/2020/11/big-tech-2020-presidential-elec...

https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/apple-inc/summary?id=D00002...

I guess it's a natural inertia facing a new wide paradigm. There will be evolution of the FTC for a digitalized society. (maybe)

Which government? It is a global problem.

What global problem? The largest tech companies are either US or Chinese companies. The Chinese government is starting to take a hard line on Chinese tech giants. It's only the US government who hasn't made a move yet.

First result on Google: https://noahpinion.substack.com/p/why-is-china-smashing-its-...

For other countries, it's hard to regulate foreign companies especially if legislation can't be enforced, or in some cases, those foreign companies just threaten to leave the market. Only the EU has unquestionable power (i.e. market size) to make US companies comply, and they have made various legislation and rulings that limit the power of these tech giants (eg. GDPR).

>What global problem

Huge tech companies with too much power.

China is a totalitarian dictatorship. The hard line they are taking includes making entrepreneurs disappear for months at a time, presumably into some sort of "reeducation" (torture) camp.

> Apple's locking consumers into their platform…

How do you mean that Apple users are "locked in" to Apple? I could move to Android tomorrow if I thought it was better for me.

"What do you mean I'm locked into America, I can travel anywhere I want!"

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