Mark Zuckerberg put it on a tray. “Does it intrigue you why I think Facebook has too much power? Let’s start with its ability to stop the debate on whether Facebook has too much power, “said Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren after the social network withdrew (and resubmitted) the posts and announcements in which it proposed to take measures to chop this and other large technology companies.
For Warren and other White House aspirants, it’s time to pass accounts and take measures to reduce the influence of digital oligopolies, Facebook, Google and Amazon in particular. Even cut them, according to Warren, divide their operations. Unrealistic? The United States, remember, did the same thing years ago with electricity grids, oil companies or telephony companies with the aim of preserving competition, the theoretical sap of the capitalist system.
For Warren and other aspiring White House, it’s time to pass accounts
The inaction of the Obama Administration with the banks after the financial crisis of 2008 was very badly perceived by many Democratic voters and to reconquer the White House they know they need to demonstrate willingness to change. Many candidates have renounced corporate donations, at least during the primary phase, so the money, for now, will not be an obstacle to the debate. Warren is the most leftist of all candidates for the Democratic primaries for the 2020 presidential elections, but those considered centrist are determined to put the issue on the table during the campaign.
Monopolies problems
“We have a huge problem of monopolies” especially in the technology sector, says Amy Klobuchar, senator for Minnesotta, one of the presidential candidates with a more moderate profile. Klobuchar, Warren and at least two other candidates (former Minister Julián Castro and former Congressman John Delaney) will participate at the end of the month at a symposium in Iowa, a key state in the race to the White House, on how monopolies have exacerbated inequality and the decline of the rural environment in the United States.
The European Union in June 2017 fined 2,420 million euros to Google for favoring its price comparator
One of the organizers of the forum is ‘Open Markets Institute Action’. The association is headed by Barry Lynn, who is considered the intellectual author of some of the theories that begin to circulate strongly about the need for the new monopolies. Author of several books on the subject, Lynn has spent years scrutinizing the performance of regulators (or, in his opinion, the lack of) with large companies and has praised the decision of the European Union in June 2017 to fine with 2,420 million of euros to Google for favoring its price comparator, an opinion that assures that it cost him his position in the progressive think-tank ‘New America’ (Google is one of its big donors).
Another influential figure in this debate is Roger McNamee, one of the first Factbook investors, who has become his biggest critic. The author of ‘Zucked: Waking Up to the Facebook Catastrophe’, just published in English, is convinced that the social network is “bad for the mental health of people” and “a danger to democracy.” McNamee, who believes the problem is in the business model, has this week at the SXSW Progressive Ideas Festival in Austin, which is advising Warren and maintains contact with two other presidential hopefuls, Senators Klobuchar and Cory Booker. .
70% of Internet traffic goes through the websites of Google and Facebook
A common argument is that the great technology companies have used their position of market dominance and personal data to stifle competition and operate in an almost monopoly regime, hence the drop in innovation indicators in the United States. Amazon, owned by Jeff Bezos, already concentrates almost 50% of online sales in the United States. 70% of Internet traffic passes through the websites of Google and Facebook and a similar percentage of the online advertising business is shared by only three companies.
There are other factors that explain that the debate about the enormous power of the digital giants begins to gain traction in the United States. On the one hand, the social unrest with the labor and fiscal practices of some of these companies and especially Amazon, frequent target of the attacks of the leftist senator Bernie Sanders, another candidate for the White House. Also the quintessential congresswoman, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, has joined the cause following the plans of the company of Jeff Bezos to settle in Long Island (New York), which finally shipwrecked.
They demand greater firmness to the companies of Sillicon Valley by the deprotection in which they are the consumers
On the other, the growing concern for privacy. The concern comes at the height of scandals of data leakage and political disinformation on a large scale and with a long delay with respect to Europe, where different authorities of data protection have stopped their feet on several occasions to Google and Facebook.
Republican Congressman Josh Hawley has written to the Federal Trade Commission to complain about the lack of protection in which consumers find themselves and to demand greater firmness with the Silicon Valley companies, the “new custodians” of the information, whom he accuses of abusing of his power and disregarding his responsibilities. “These debates go beyond party lines, affect the integrity of elections, freedom of expression, privacy and competition, among other issues,” Hawley warns.
Facebook is aware that changes are coming
The issue begins to transcend traditional ideological boundaries. “Conservatives do not like these companies because they belong to and are operated by Silicon Valley progressives subjected to the worst kind of ‘herd thinking’. Progressives do not like it because they are companies that make colossal profits, “summed up this week Rich Lowry, director of the conservative portal ‘National Review’, who believes that the great technologists are being trapped by a claw from the two ends of the ideological arch. “The worst ideas in Washington”, alert, usually have the support of the two major parties.
Facebook is aware that, in one way or another, through political, judicial or popular, changes are coming. He knows that his users spend less and less time in the social network. One in four has erased the mobile app, according to a September survey by the Pew Research Center. And it has been able to lose about 15 million users since 2017 in the United States (a small but expensive pinch of the world total of 2,300 million), according to Edison Research calculations. In this context, Zuckerberg’s announcement that Facebook will evolve towards a private message exchange platform has been interpreted in San Francisco as an emergency remedy rather than a future project.
In the case of Google and Apple app stores, one solution would be, for example, to eliminate the fees that platforms charge for using their services.
About Warren
Warren, known for her harsh criticism of the excesses of Wall Street since she was a professor at Harvard, is the only candidate that outlined a concrete plan. What exactly do you propose? On the one hand, that companies with an annual turnover of more than 25,000 million have to choose between having a “service platform” or selling their products in it, whether they are analogical, as in the case of the Amazon store, or digital, such as the apps or the music of Apple. On the other hand, review some recent business mergers and correct their pernicious effects for competition, a point that raises more consensus than the first. Thus, Amazon may be forced to part with the Whole Foods supermarket chain, Waze’s Google and WhatsApp Facebook and Instagram.
Some analysts warned that Warren’s “one-size-fits-all” approach (his proposal is based on the size of the companies and not on his business model) could encounter problems in achieving his goals or have unexpected consequences for services that are not They pose problems. The issues raised “are critical” but to attack them correctly, recommends Ben Thompson, technology analyst, it is necessary to understand “history, fundamental problems and the nature of the technology industry” and bet on more surgical measures.
A simple solution in the case of Google and Apple app stores would be to end the fees that platforms charge for using their services
That’s what says Kevin Roose, columnist for The New York Times, which also warns of the risk of mixing abuses real with other more subjective or even imaginary as the censorship reported by conservative politicians like Ted Cruz or President Trump himself. Facebook withdrew Warren’s ads because he illegally used his logo. “Thank you” but “I still want a social platform that is not dominated by a censor”, replied the senator, convinced that ‘cut’ Facebook would have more incentives to behave well.
Also published on Medium.