From: usenet@only.tnx   
      
   On Tue, 24 Aug 2021 12:15:26 -0400, Michael Trew  wrote:   
   >On 8/23/2021 4:23 PM, Questor wrote:   
   >>On Sun, 22 Aug 2021 12:49:06 -0400, Michael Trew    
   wrote:   
   >>>On 8/22/2021 2:05 AM, Snidely wrote:   
   >>>>On Saturday, Michael Trew wrote:   
   >>>I've been reading recently that the feds are starting to crack down,   
   >>>more lawsuits coming for "splitting up" big tech co's like Amazon,   
   >>>Google, Apple, etc.  I hope they finally get something done.   
   >>   
   >>And how would that work, exactly?  I hear a lot of vague talk about breaking   
   up   
   >>these big tech companies, but never any specific proposals.  I don't see any   
   >>reasonable way to do it that mitigates the problems that people are   
   complaining   
   >>about.  Consider Amazon.  They might be forced to divest themselves of their   
   web   
   >>services (AWS) and/or their voice-controlled assistant (Echo), etc., but how   
   >>does that solve the issue of their dominance in online commerce with the   
   Amazon   
   >>marketplace?  How do you split up that?  Similarly with Facebook -- they can   
   >>spin off Instagram et alia, but how could the main site be divided?  As with   
   >>Google and their search engine.  There are reasons why these companies have   
   >>become giants in their core businesses, and for most of us we can begin to   
   >>understand them by looking in the mirror.   
   >   
   >I can't say, I haven't read that much into it.  The article I'm   
   >referencing was from a couple of months ago, where several states   
   >attorneys general had gotten together to file a federal lawsuit,   
   >antitrust, or something of the sort.   
      
   Absent a cogent plan, any whining about splitting up the tech giants is just   
   empty, feel-good rhetoric.  My understanding of the anti-trust investigations   
   is   
   that they are focused on the advertising business, which is how Google and   
   Facebook earn their revenue.  It's okay to be a monopoly, as long as that   
   monopoly power is not abused to the detriment of potential competitors.  Any   
   change resulting from an eventual judgement will have little impact on most   
   people, unless they are buying advertising on those sites.  After all, the end   
   user (or more specifically their attention) is not the customer; they are the   
   product being sold.   
      
   --   
   Hail stones beating on the roof, the bourbon is hundred proof   
   It's you and me and the telephone, our destiny is quite well known   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
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