
Big Tech marshals a right-leaning army of allies for antitrust fight - jlpcsl
https://www.axios.com/big-tech-marshals-a-right-leaning-army-of-allies-for-antitrust-fight-155d5760-86d4-4ce0-9cda-734dbc95e252.html
======
rayiner
"You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the
villain." Being in the good graces of the left isn't something you can count
on. The fact that you got rich by making products people want and need and
made peoples' live better is something that will be forgotten as soon as its
politically convenient. Given which way the winds are blowing, "Big Tech"
isn't making a mistake by trying to make some "right-leaning" friends.

~~~
klyrs
In the early days, they were altruistic and doing things to make people's
lives easier. And then they turned into advertising company who sells personal
info that was gathered under a pretense of good faith and respect of privacy.
Disliking google isn't a political whim; google's practices are a capitalistic
whim. When those practices went from "do no evil" to "profit however and don't
look to closely at the ethics", that's when they lost the support of this
"leftist".

"It's better to die on your feet, than live on your knees"

~~~
due737ey
Counter argument, it's wildly more important that people be able to monetize
their data and most of the people against it are failing to appreciate how
economically progressive data monetization is. People used to /pay/ for
software, not just professional software but software in general. And when
they didn't pay for that software it was often because there simply wasn't
software of that kind for their use case. Being able to sell data is the
primary reason consumers have access to the plethora of free and quality
services that they have today. There has never been this many good free games,
this much free music, nor any other similar quanitity of free and useful
services like office software in history and a large amount of that is due to
data monetization. It's nearly impossible for me to care about what the data
privacy advocates have to say when the movement has historically handwaved
away the social benefits of data monetization while clinging to dubious icons
like Snowden and Manning.

------
dragonwriter
> Big Tech marshals a right-leaning army of allies for antitrust fight

“Status quo elites marshal an army from the faction defined by defending the
power of status quo elites for fight that might threaten their power” has to
be, at least very nearly, the most dog-bites-purpose-built-dog-chew-toy story
in the history of news.

The unusual aspect of this is that the antitrust _threat_ comes from the far
right largely as retaliation for platforms being insufficiently accommodating
to the far right, not that the _defenders_ are the classic center-right-to-
solid-right defenders of entrenched corporate power.

~~~
wmf
But will the employees revolt? Or will they think the ends justify the means?

~~~
claudeganon
Google routinely funds the campaigns of far right US politicians and pays lip
service to social justice issues. The latter has historically been sufficient
to appease the employees.

------
busterarm
The "right-leaning army" is just toll-paying to try and make this go away.
Aside from Warren, the right is where the anti-trust charges are coming from.

It's like getting pulled over in a small town -- you pay a lot into the local
economy to make the ticket disappear.

~~~
rayiner
No, "breaking up big tech" fits squarely into the left's anti-corporate
narrative: [https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-tech-
factbox...](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-tech-
factbox/where-us-presidential-candidates-stand-on-breaking-up-big-tech-
idUSKBN1ZN16C)

> Biden slammed big tech companies in a January interview with the New York
> Times, saying he had “never been a fan of Facebook” and arguing that online
> platforms should not be allowed immunity for content posted by users.

> Warren is leading the charge to break up big tech companies on the grounds
> they hold outsized influence and stifle competition.

> Sanders, who frequently criticizes corporate influence, has also called for
> the breakup of big tech companies such as Facebook and Amazon.

Make no mistake, this isn't the Clintons' party anymore (or it won't be for
much longer). The young blood hates business and corporations and is pulling
the whole party in that direction.

~~~
brandonmenc
> "breaking up big tech" fits squarely into the left's anti-corporate
> narrative

True but, (anecdotally) a growing number of my center and right-leaning
acquaintances are warming to the idea of breaking up and/or (at least partly)
nationalizing parts of the economy - particularly big tech - because we appear
to be in a cold - potentially hot - war with China.

imo this idea is going to be coming from the right more frequently in the near
future.

~~~
rayiner
That's fair. The social conservatives and Tucker Carlson nationalists are
getting wobbly on that front for sure.

------
vmception
The key sign of a sector's maturity is its presence on both/all sides of the
aisle.

I never go into another country thinking "wait did you guys just elect
extremists because if so that makes me not want to do business here" so why
would I treat America differently?

When people use the term "virtue signaling" as a criticism of an
organization's actions, it is based on the observation that the same
organizations doing it are involved in plenty of other countries and didn't
consider the political outcomes at all, only the convenience of what is
possible in that country. Ireland, Cayman Islands, Netherlands are part of the
standard cocktail, and when the head of state is rolling out a red carpet, I
do not care how they got there.

------
throwaway3699
Considering the utter alienation of right-leaning opinions on Big Tech
platforms under the guise of not being "advertiser friendly", they have a
bloody tough fight on their hands.

------
microDude
I think about this all the time:

Would it be possible to change the anti-trust laws so that companies can not
merge or be acquired if the sum of their assets and revenue exceeds a set
dollar figure adjusted for inflation?

If A(assets + revenue) + B(assets + revenue) >= $, then not allowed to merge.

This will promote competition from upstarts and increase the efficiency of
these companies by preventing them from gobbling up every new market.

------
lykr0n
I will be very curious when the Google Anti-Trust suit drops to see how the
tech world reacts. We've seen a lot of consolidation in the past few years-
Google seems to be gobbling up any tech company that collects a lot of
personal information without consequence.

There are a lot of Googlers on HN who blindly follow Google, and more people
who worship the ground Google walks on; i'll be curious to see what the
discussion is like when Google's evil is laid out for the world to see. Lot of
the stuff Google (and other companies like Facebook) is indefensible when you
look at it from an anti-trust point of view. Stuff like this article, where
Google is working with people who are against what a lot of Googler's stand
for will be an interesting show.

~~~
magicalist
> _We 've seen a lot of consolidation in the past few years- Google seems to
> be gobbling up any tech company that collects a lot of personal information
> without consequence._

Like what? I can only remember what seemed like some bad vr acquisitions and
companies that were basically already Google Cloud products.

~~~
tarboreus
Since January, 2015, they've acquired Launchpad Toys, Odysee, Softcard, Red
Hot Labs, Thrive Audio, Skillman & Hackett, Timeful, Pulse.io, Pixate, Oyster,
Jibe Mobile, Agawi, Digisfera, Fly Labs, bebop, BandPage, Pie, Synergyse,
Webpass, Moodstocks, Anvato, Kifi, LaunchKit, Orbitera, Apigee, Urban Engines,
API.AI, FameBit, Eyefluence, LeapDroid, Qwiklabs, Cronologics, Limes Audio,
Fabric, Kaggle, AppBridge, Owlchemy Labs, Halli Labs, AIMatter, HTC
(portions), Bitium, Relay Media, 60db, Redux, Tenor, Velostrata, Cask,
GraphicsFuzz, Senosis, Onward, Workbench Education, Sigmoid Labs, DevOps
Research and Assessment, Superpod, Alooma, Nightcorn, Looker, Elastifile,
Socratic, CloudSimple, Typhoon Studios, Pointy, North, and, last but not
least, Fitbit.

Prior to that, Google acquired Dejavue, Outride, Pyra Labs, Neotonic Software,
Applied Semantics, Kaltix, Sprinks, Genius Labs, Ignite Logic, Picasa,
ZipDash, Where2, Keyhole, Urchin Software Corporation, Dodgeball, Akwan
Information Technologies, Reqwireless, Android, Skia, Phatbits, allPAY,
bruNET, dMarc Broadcasting, Measure Map, Upstartle, @Last Software, Orion,
2Web Technologies, Neven Vision Germany, YouTube, JotSpot, Endoxon, Adscape,
Trendalyzer, Crusix, Tonic Systems, Marratech, DoubleClick, GreenBorder,
Panoramio, FeedBurner, PeakStream, Zenter, GrandCentral, ImageAmerica,
Postini, Zingku, Jaiku, Omnisio, TNC, On2, reCAPTCHA, AdMob, Gizmo5, Teracent,
AppJet, Aardvark, reMail, Picnik, DocVerse, Episodic, Plink, Agnilux,
LabPixies, BumpTop, Global IP Solutions, Simplify Media, Ruba.com, Invite
Media, Metaweb, Zetawire, Instantiations, Slide.com, Jambool, Like.com,
Angstro, SocialDeck, Quiksee, Plannr, BlindType, Phonetic Arts, Widevine
Technologies, eBook Technologies, SayNow, Zynamics, BeatThatQuote.com, Next
New Networks, Green Parrot Pictures, PushLife, ITA Software, TalkBin,
Sparkbuy, PostRank, Admeld, SageTV, Punchd, Fridge, PittPatt, Dealmap,
Motorola Mobility, Zave Networks, Zagat, DailyDeal, SocialGrapple, Apture,
Katango, RightsFlow, Clever Sense, Milk, TxVia, Meebo, Quickoffice, Sparrow,
WIMM Labs, Wildfire Interactive, VirusTotal.com, Nik Software, Viewdle,
Incentive Targeting, BufferBox, Channel Intelligence, DNNresearch, Talaria
Technologies, Behavio, Wavii, Makani Power, Waze, Bump, Flutter, FlexyCore,
Schaft, Industrial Perception, Redwood Robotics, Meka Robotics, Holomni, Bot &
Dolly, Autofuss, Bitspin, Nest Labs, Impermium, DeepMind Technologies,
SlickLogin, spider.io, GreenThrottle, Titan Aerospace, Rangespan, Adometry,
Appetas, Stackdriver, MyEnergy, Quest Visual, Divide, Skybox Imaging, mDialog,
Alpental Technologies, Dropcam, Appurify, Songza, drawElements, Emu, Director,
Jetpac, Gecko Design, Zync Render, Lift Labs, Polar, Firebase, Dark Blue Labs
& Vision Factory, Revolv, RelativeWave, and Vidmaker.

------
olivermarks
Although various individuals from the conservative with a small 'c' world plus
libertarians are cited in this article, the arguments put forth here are for
me another example of a misunderstanding of what 'right leaning' might mean in
this era. Proponents and builders of surveillance capitalism and associated
global data gathering for corporate and state uses tend to lean 'left', as in
neo liberal left. The older tradition of conservatism tends to be much more
interested in personal privacy and respect for the individual. Example:
[https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/facebook-
an...](https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/facebook-and-google-
must-be-regulated-now/)

Neo conservatives and neoliberals (the UK Guardian is a good example of
globalist neo liberal ideas) are largely the same thing with some nuances.
Just as there are various flavors of 'left' this is also true of the 'right'.

~~~
pmoriarty
_" Proponents and builders of surveillance capitalism and associated global
data gathering for corporate and state uses tend to lean 'left', as in neo
liberal left."_

Neoliberalism is a right wing ideology, not a left wing one.

 _" "Neoliberalism" is contemporarily used to refer to market-oriented reform
policies such as "eliminating price controls, deregulating capital markets,
lowering trade barriers" and reducing state influence in the economy,
especially through privatization and austerity."_[1]

This is pretty much the _opposite_ from what those on the left aim for.

Those on the left want nationalization, not privitazation, regulation of
capital markets, not deregulation, price controls, not their elimination, and
more state influence in the economy, not less.

[1] -
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoliberal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoliberal)

~~~
Orou
It depends on which "left" you're talking about - it's not quite so simple.
Clinton's 90's administration is frequently (and I would say accurately)
described as neoliberal. The democratic party has become much more business
and corporate friendly over the past 40 years. I think you'd be right in
describing modern-day progressives as the "left" that you are defining here in
opposition to neoliberalism. Does that make neoliberalism itself right-wing?
Are establishment democrats right-wing if they have adopted neoliberal
policies, as many have? Is Clinton now considered to have been a right-wing
president by that definition?

I think these are interesting questions to ask now as the left, broadly
speaking, doesn't have a strong political identity, with many progressives
further left of the democratic party and other disaffected voters leaning
libertarian.

~~~
pmoriarty
_" Is Clinton now considered to have been a right-wing president by that
definition?"_

To the extent that Clinton embraced neoliberal policies, he would be
considered to be pursuing a right-wing economic agenda.

