
Break up Facebook (and while we're at it, Google, Apple and Amazon) - djrogers
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/nov/20/facebook-google-antitrust-laws-gilded-age
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ToFab123
Although I am in favor or breaking up, maybe not Apple, but the others ASAP,
that is not going to happen unless there is a Snowden copycat at work inside
Google / Facebook.

Look at the Google Transparency Project. Google basically runs the US
government (or at least used to under Obama).
[https://www.googletransparencyproject.org](https://www.googletransparencyproject.org)

Without having a "new Snowden" giving the average citizens the shock of a
lifetime by displaying how much info those spy companies have on us all
nothing is going to change.

When Rockefeller was around in the 1930 there was no, or only little, lobbying
but since it is now legal for anyone to buy US politicians little will change.

Lets hope the Snowden of Google / Facebook start his/her upload to wiki leaks
soon.

~~~
auslander
> not Apple, but the others

Why Amazon ?

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olivermarks
Rana Foroohar has ben very eloquent on this topic all year. 'Antitrust policy
is ripe for a rethink We should consider regulating Big Tech like we do the
banks'
[https://www.ft.com/content/b5ce2342-7624-11e8-b326-75a27d27e...](https://www.ft.com/content/b5ce2342-7624-11e8-b326-75a27d27ea5f)
But as Reich points out in his UK Guardian piece neither wing of US politics
seems very interested in reining in the giant platform companies. Surely if
Faang was 'broken up' other monopolies would just spring up in their
place...antitrust seems to wax and wane politicly and some of the biggest DC
lobbyists are firms like Facebook...

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djrogers
I really, really don’t get lumping Apple in with Google and Facebook here. The
only rationale given is that ‘Apple dominates smartphones and laptop
computers.‘ the first - smartphones - is highly regional, and the second isn’t
even defensible as an argument, as Apple only sells a small percentage of
laptops.

Even if those were both completely true, I can’t fathom how it leads to
needing to break Apple up?

~~~
JumpCrisscross
> _I can’t fathom how it leads to needing to break Apple up?_

Apple the device company is quite different from Apple the media company.
Spotify competes with the former on an unlevel field.

Agree, though, that the case for breaking up Facebook, Google and Amazon is
more urgent.

