
White House Drafts Order to Look into Google, Facebook Practices - petethomas
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-09-22/draft-order-for-trump-would-crack-down-on-google-facebook
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cromwellian
Does anyone believe the Republicans are doing this because they believe in
trust busting and regulation, or more likely, that they don’t like the
outcomes about how their political messaging is handled or received on the
internet.

Note that for years progressive voices have complained about censorship in
media and lack of representation but they never had the political power to
investigate anything.

Moreover, after the communications act of 1996, consolidation in media allowed
the likes of Fox and Clearchannel to build conservative media empires, and
while progressives complained and demanded a fairness doctrine or FCC
regulation to prevent too much ownership, there was no zeal by GOP to do
anything about it.

This looks to me to be a pure political play to the base and IMHO it is cause
for concern that an administration that frequently attacks media and calls
them an enemy is constantly attacking tech companies, not for the kinds of
economic arguments economists would make, but for politically vindictive
reasons. It looks like using government power to advance the interests of a
political party.

Basically, opposing Trump or the GOP paints a target on your back, so expect
corporate interests to fall in line and suck up to avoid a shakedown.

The GOP now controls all three branches of government, a majority of state
governments, despite consistently losing the popular vote. Can they really
claim they’re being harmed by tech companies, because if there is some
conspiracy to silence their message, somehow they’re still winning like
gangbusters.

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cft
This makes me happy that I never worked for your employer, Google, despite
many unanswered emails from their HR. I do like the diversity of thought.

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rfw
What does diversity of thought even mean?

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eksemplar
I find the republican stance on this a little ironic, considering the places
that are the easiest to get banned from on the internet are right-wing. Just
try posting that you like Hillary Clinton on the infowars or Breitbart forums.

You can make a Trump support group on Facebook just fine.

