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Submitted by Scott Cleland on Tue, 2021-06-22 19:20
The Heartland Institute
BIG-TECH DEFENDERS VASTLY UNDERESTIMATE ITS POWER RELATIVE TO GOVERNMENT’S
JUNE 22, 2021
By Scott Cleland
Big-Tech is much more powerful than its defenders assume.
Submitted by Scott Cleland on Mon, 2021-04-19 12:02
Submitted by Scott Cleland on Wed, 2020-10-21 14:12
“The court of public opinion” is not a court of law.
“The truth” is not sufficient in a court of law like it is in the court of public opinion. In a court of law, the well-known legal “truth” standard and oath is telling “the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.”
Submitted by Scott Cleland on Fri, 2020-10-09 11:45
https://dailycaller.com/2020/10/08/cleland-discovering-googles-rule-of-scofflaw/
DAILY CALLER OPINION
Discovering Google’s Rule of Scofflaw
SCOTT CLELAND CONTRIBUTOR -- October 08, 20203:04 PM ET
Google has a discovery double standard.
Google treats the discovery of others’ information the way they don’t want discovery of their information treated, the opposite of the Golden Rule.
The evidence shows Google expects everyone else’s private or proprietary information to be publicly accessible and useful, except Google’s.
Google knows information is power.
Google and antitrust authorities also know asymmetric information advantages can create, maintain and extend market power.
This is a timely and relevant concern as the two biggest legal cases that Google has ever faced are coming to a head in public, at nearly the same time.
On October 7, the Supreme Court heard the final Oracle v. Google arguments.
Submitted by Scott Cleland on Mon, 2020-09-21 11:04
Submitted by Scott Cleland on Mon, 2020-09-14 16:33
The impending public filing of the expected DOJ antitrust case against Google means big change is afoot for U.S. antitrust enforcement for Internet platforms.
As we look ahead, it’s important to not miss the forest for the trees.
The Senate is having an antitrust hearing on Google. The House is soon releasing a report on Big Tech antitrust. And the DOJ and states are expected to file an antitrust lawsuit against Google.
Some background on my insights and predictions below.
Thirteen years ago, I testified before the Senate Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee in opposition to the proposed Google-DoubleClick acquisition. I accurately warned of “the stakes of lax antitrust enforcement…” and “missing the forest for the trees,” because the merger obviously “would create extreme market concentration horizontally and vertically, and also tip the online advertising market to a bottleneck.” Since then, I have copiously chronicled Google’s antitrust issues on Googleopoly.net.
Submitted by Scott Cleland on Tue, 2020-07-21 11:06
Our polarized Internet world has generated at least one area of extraordinary bipartisan consensus: 77 percent of Americans agree Google, Facebook, and Amazon have too much power according to a Gallup survey.
The near unanimous participation of Federal, State and Congressional antitrust authorities in probing Google, Facebook, and Amazon, indicates extraordinary concern that their unchecked market power threatens competition for the consumer market.
Both political parties agree that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which grants Internet platforms with immunity from liability for good faith moderation of online content, in practice provides Internet platforms unaccountable power that warrants reform.
Section 230’s intermediary impunity loophole provides these dominant consumer gatekeepers with anticompetitive advantages that facilitate the monopolization of access to consumer demand online, thus undermining competition for U.S. consumer spending that comprises 68% of U.S. GDP.
These gatekeepers, which do their best to avoid competing directly with each other, dominate competitive access to the online U.S. consumer market, leaving most potential competitors dependent on them to broadly reach online consumer demand.
How could this happen?
Submitted by Scott Cleland on Fri, 2020-03-27 10:29
Big Tech tales that the Coronavirus Crisis somehow will mitigate their Techlash problem, totally miss the mark.
They miss that the crisis is not good and not about tech. They miss that to whom much is given, much is expected.
They miss how many other industries and companies have contributed and sacrificed during this crisis without expecting something in return.
Spontaneously this past week, a tech op-ed chorus broke out singing a new tune and tale, that the Coronavirus Crisis could benefit Big Tech and save it from much of the Techlash.
Consider: Coronavirus gives Big Tech an opportunity to shine – Axios 3-18-20; Has the coronavirus killed the Techlash? Wired 3-20-20; Big Tech has the cash to expand after crisis, Regulatory threat also likely to recede for now, FT 3-20-20; and What Techlash? Virus Could Remake Industry Giants Image, The Information 3-23-20.
Like some catchy new tunes lyrics, these don’t make sense.
Why is the Coronavirus Crisis no cure for the Techlash?
First, Americans strong bipartisan views undergird the Techlash in the U.S.
Consider a recent Gallup poll of Americans published 3-11-20.
Submitted by Scott Cleland on Wed, 2018-12-12 14:02
Government scrutiny of Internet platform unaccountability is here to stay because it is a strong bipartisan concern and interest.
Yesterday’s House Judiciary Committee hearing on “Transparency & Accountability: Examining Google and its Data Collection, Use and Filtering Practices” featured Google CEO Sundar Pichai as the lone witness.
The hearing provided a ~30 congressperson data-set and proxy for where Google specifically, and Internet platforms generally, stand politically at this point in the techlash gauntlet.
Submitted by Scott Cleland on Fri, 2018-12-07 17:49
Are Google, Facebook, and Amazon, pro-competitive Internet “new entrants” or anti-competitive enduring monopoly Internet platform incumbents?
Apparently, that critical distinction depends less on evidence, and more on one’s antitrust predilections and prosecutorial presumptions – i.e. does one view the Internet competition glass half-empty (pessimistic) or half-full (optimistic).
Recent evidence from the Trump DOJ Antitrust Division suggests it’s in the Internet competition optimist camp almost to the point of Internet competition Pollyannaism, despite the evident Internet platform antitrust enforcement drumbeat around the world, in Congress, and the White House, to the contrary over the last 18 months. Pages
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