A rapid-fire series of announcements in June foreshadow an increase
in antitrust scrutiny of the tech companies that shape our economy.
Nancy Pelosi summed it up on Twitter: “The era of self-regulation is over.” The House Judiciary Committee has opened an investigation into competition in digital markets, while the Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission have divided authority
between themselves over Alphabet (Google), Amazon, Apple, and Facebook.
The DOJ will oversee any antitrust investigation of Google and Apple,
leaving Facebook and Amazon to the FTC. Google and Facebook are presumed
to be the focus.
The momentum to do something has been building, and for good reason.
Consumers get to search the internet and connect with friends for free.
But the cost is surveillance—across the whole web. This surveillance has
concentrated the powers of influence and persuasion in the hands of two
companies, with the sanctity of our democracy as the price. Congress
recently investigated Russia's use of Facebook advertising to influence
our 2016 presidential election, and is currently investigating whether
Google is partly to blame for the wholesale decline of news publishers
in America.
Even this is not the whole story. With the companies' revenues a
function of sucking up more and more of users' time, their game becomes
one of addiction. This may be why, at the World Economic Forum at Davos
last year, George Soros branded them
as a “menace” to society, and Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff called on
countries to regulate them like they do the tobacco companies. {Read on}