THREAD: RE what @RepAOC said. I sincerely thought about the anti-trust aspect of THREE major social media platforms going down at ONCE based on the fact that BIG TECH is not subject to DOJ authority & thus can behave anticompetitively by swallowing up competition 1/10
We've seen it time & time again when a company wants to compete in a space, it would attempt to purchase an established business w/ an R&D team, resources & staff v start from scratch. This move makes perfect business sense for a capitalist nation like America, however, 2/10
America has a history of monopolies (eg oil, gas, rail) acting in anticompetitive manner which harms the public. In absence of competition, there's unreasonably high prices, les customer svc & less offerings. W/out competition, there's no way for the dissatisfied to leave 3/10
And historically, w legacy utilities like cable & TV, for ex, to balance interest of private companies recouping their investments in infrastructure & public interest, US imposes consumer protective regs & limits acquisitions so that ONE entity cant own too much of ONE mkt 4/10
Currently, one entity can't own the radio, Tv stations & newspaper or national & local distribution mechanisms networks in a market Imagine if they could, how much influence & control could be exerted over voices disseminated! The internet is NOT regulated, however 5/10
BIG TECH has successfully argued to the FCC & DOJ via lobbying, comments in proposed regs & lawsuits that there are so many conduits for info online the internet is uniquely UNLIKE traditional monopoly utilities. The argument has worked. Social media has no regulation. 6/10
However, we have seen plenty cases where absence of regulations has allowed BIG TECH incl social media companies to engage in anticompetitive behavior & get away with it. Twitter, for example, wanted to get into LIVE, so it acquired existing co Periscope then kicked 7/
the competitor, Meerkat, off its API (backend access to app data) essentially killing Meerkat, leaving ONE option for awhile. Eventually, Snap, then FB & IG started adding LIVE functionality FB tried to BUY Snap. IT said NO. So FB acquired IG diluting Snap's mkt reach opp 8/10
And yesterday, we saw the dangers of having NO regulatory control or means of curbing the instinctive market behavior which lead to anti-competitive acquisition & eventually ONE entity owning SOOO much of the internet! WE can be pro free market economy yet demand balance 9/10
Of the public interest in not having the business loss, social isolation & all the other negative consequences of a 9 hour black solely because ONE entity controlled THREE major platforms. What are your thoughts? Should the Internet be regulated? Even a little bit? 10/10 END
