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As Antitrust Probes Ramp Up, Facebook, Amazon, Google Investors Should Fear These Charts
“Concentration in the digital advertising market has pushed local journalism to the verge of extinction", Representative David Cicilline, a Rhode Island Democrat, said Tuesday, during the first hearing on the outsized dominance of Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple.
Cicilline heads up the House Judiciary Committee's “top to bottom” review, which is set to run in parallel to twin-antitrust probes by the FTC and Justice Department. Lawmakers, though, worry that regulators have been derelict
This political operation will have no effect. Big tech is only the most visible part of this. It is pervasive and growing. Algorithms that generate, aggregate and target content will continue to advance and spread. Can we hope that the audience learns how to use reason and judgement instead?
The people who scoff will be safe for a long time. These investigations take a long time, and will be hard fought if the go forward. Any modifications to existing law giving the government an easier path to a remedy are even further away. And I think even Elizabeth Warren’s proposals, which depend upon her election and a sympathetic House and Senate, are misunderstood as a general plan to break up the companies. Her proposal is more focused on preventing them from using power in one vertical to gain an advantage in another market. That still leaves these companies with power in their primary market, assuming they achieved that status legally. It sounds like one of those issues that will gain attention from time to time, and then be forgotten.