Is ‘Big Tech’ too big? A look at growing antitrust scrutiny
5 years, 7 months ago

Is ‘Big Tech’ too big? A look at growing antitrust scrutiny

Associated Press  

SAN FRANCISCO — Is Big Tech headed for a big breakup? The U.S. Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission are moving to investigate Google, Facebook, Amazon and Apple over their aggressive business practices, and the House Judiciary Committee has announced an unprecedented antitrust probe, promising “a top-to-bottom review of the market power held by giant tech platforms.” In addition, at least two 2020 presidential hopefuls have expressed support for breaking up some of technology’s biggest players amid concerns they have become too powerful. Experts say breakups are unlikely in the short term, and Rep. David Cicilline, the Rhode Island Democrat who leads the subcommittee pursuing the House investigation, called such measures a “last resort.” But even without that, Facebook, Google, Amazon and Apple could face new restrictions on their power. Under existing laws, it is difficult to make the case that Google has monopoly power, “even though I think a lot of people think it’s really obvious,” Fox said. Apple also says its store includes apps that compete with its own products, including Google Maps and Google’s Chrome browser.

Tech Amazon Apple Antitrust Big Warren Store Facebook Big Tech Its Own Products Google Products  growing  google  products  scrutiny  antitrust  say  facebook  store  big  companies  look  apple  tech  amazon

History of this topic

What does Big Tech hope to gain from warming up to Trump?
3 weeks, 2 days ago

What does Big Tech hope to gain from warming up to Trump?

The Hindu  

In a string of visits, dinners, calls, monetary pledges and social media overtures, big tech chiefs — including Apple's Tim Cook, OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, SoftBank's Masayoshi Son and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos — have joined a parade of business and world leaders in trying to improve their standing with President-elect Donald Trump before he takes office in January. …

What does Big Tech hope to gain from warming up to Donald Trump?
3 weeks, 2 days ago

What does Big Tech hope to gain from warming up to Donald Trump?

India Today  

NEW YORK: In a string of visits, dinners, calls, monetary pledges and social media overtures, big tech chiefs — including Apple's Tim Cook, OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, SoftBank's Masayoshi Son and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos — have joined a parade of business and world leaders in trying to improve their standing with President-elect Donald Trump before he takes office …

What does Big Tech hope to gain from warming up to Trump?
3 weeks, 2 days ago

What does Big Tech hope to gain from warming up to Trump?

Associated Press  

NEW YORK — In a string of visits, dinners, calls, monetary pledges and social media overtures, big tech chiefs — including Apple’s Tim Cook, OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos — have joined a parade of business and world leaders in trying to improve their standing with President-elect Donald Trump before he takes …

Tech CEOs sell out Democrats in rush to curry favor with Trump
1 month, 2 weeks ago

Tech CEOs sell out Democrats in rush to curry favor with Trump

Salon  

Democrats made a strategic alliance with Silicon Valley during Barack Obama’s presidency that they would be wise to shake in the face of a second Donald Trump term. Since the Obama era, Big Tech CEOs have portrayed themselves as champions for climate action and social justice, defenders of reproductive rights and fundamental freedoms, and thus allies to Democrats and progressives. …

Antitrust enforcers prepare final blitz against Big Tech
1 month, 3 weeks ago

Antitrust enforcers prepare final blitz against Big Tech

Live Mint  

WASHINGTON—The Biden administration’s top antitrust officials plan to take more shots at the tech industry before leaving office, in a race to cap four years of aggressive enforcement. “The government putting its thumb on the scale in these ways would harm consumers, developers and American technological leadership," said Lee-Anne Mulholland, Google’s vice president of regulatory affairs. The department’s antitrust division …

What Donald Trump's Win Will Mean for Big Tech
55 years ago

What Donald Trump's Win Will Mean for Big Tech

Wired  

On Wednesday, the chief executives of the leading Big Tech companies congratulated the US president-elect. Trump has shown disdain for Big Tech companies, and he’s been vocal about pursuing policies that increase the cost of doing business for Big Tech and subject them to more unfavorable regulations. And now, with Elon Musk as his biggest supporter, “this might be a …

DC Edit | Google fine: Caveat for Big Tech
5 months ago

DC Edit | Google fine: Caveat for Big Tech

Deccan Chronicle  

After a six-year-long antitrust lawsuit against Google, a US court declared that Alphabet, Google’s owner, has illegally monopolised the search market through exclusive deals with mobile handset makers. Judge Amit Mehta, who delivered this verdict, said Alphabet paid $26 billion to make its search engine the default option on smartphones and web browsers, and effectively blocked any other competitor from …

The Inevitability of Big Tech Backing Trump
55 years ago

The Inevitability of Big Tech Backing Trump

Wired  

It is true just about everywhere, but especially in America: Real power is having control over the flow of resources. On the verge of another presidential election, no one knows that better than Silicon Valley CEOs and investors, some of whom publicly announced their support for Donald Trump and his running mate, Senator J.D. Behind the calculated loyalties of Big …

Opinion: AI and privacy rules meant for Big Tech could hurt small businesses most
7 months, 3 weeks ago

Opinion: AI and privacy rules meant for Big Tech could hurt small businesses most

LA Times  

The company that makes Roomba and Braava cleaning tools was not allowed to be acquired by Amazon and has had hard times since that fell through. As lawmakers and regulators in the U.S. consider policy born of their Big Tech concerns such as data privacy and artificial intelligence, they should carefully consider how such changes could end up trampling the …

Why is Rishi shying away from a battle with Big Tech?
8 months ago

Why is Rishi shying away from a battle with Big Tech?

The Independent  

It was a defining moment of Rishi Sunak’s reign when he sat, being filmed, interviewing Elon Musk. “And there is a concern that this opens up, effectively, a sort of full merits appeal basis, something that we’ve been – in all the debates on this bill going through both Houses – keen to avoid.” Labour’s Alex Davies-Jones said the government …

Is breaking up Big Tech really the magic bullet for startups?
9 months ago

Is breaking up Big Tech really the magic bullet for startups?

Live Mint  

Microsoft is unbundling its video conferencing platform Teams from the Office suite after a European probe into anti-competitive practices. India’s Competition Act, 2002 lays down guidelines on market abuse, covering Big Tech as well—as seen in the Competition Commission investigating Google with regard to its Play Store. In March, the Committee on Digital Competition Law introduced the draft Digital Competition …

Antitrust crackdown looms over Big Tech: How Apple, Google are likely staring at break-up orders in US and EU
9 months, 2 weeks ago

Antitrust crackdown looms over Big Tech: How Apple, Google are likely staring at break-up orders in US and EU

Live Mint  

Antitrust regulators on both sides of the Atlantic are tightening their grip on Big Tech, raising the spectre of potential break-up orders for industry titans such as Apple and Alphabet's Google, as per a Reuters report. Regulators have accused companies like Apple and Google of erecting insurmountable barriers around their products, creating what is termed as "walled gardens," thus hindering …

Big crisis of Big Tech means innovation curve had plateaued
2 years ago

Big crisis of Big Tech means innovation curve had plateaued

Live Mint  

Joshua Browder, a 26-year-old UK entrepreneur, recently supercharged his main product in a way that he could hardly have imagined a few years ago. His startup DoNotPay developed a chatbot that could negotiate erroneous or excessive fines and fees on people’s behalf—think unfair parking tickets—by building a database of expertise based on its history of human interactions. GMR Sports in …

Big Tech And Its Congressional Allies Kill Most — But Not All — Antitrust Legislation
2 years ago

Big Tech And Its Congressional Allies Kill Most — But Not All — Antitrust Legislation

Huff Post  

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has been the target of pressure from Big Tech companies, which have spent massive sums on lobbying during the current Congress. While a pair of smaller provisions in the omnibus will help antitrust advocates take on the nation’s largest tech companies in the future, the death of the Open App Markets Act and the American …

How big tech defeated the biggest antitrust push in decades on Capitol Hill
2 years ago

How big tech defeated the biggest antitrust push in decades on Capitol Hill

LA Times  

Sen. Amy Klobuchar co- A passionate and bipartisan legislative effort to rein in the country’s largest technology companies collapsed this week, the victim of an epic lobbying campaign by Amazon, Apple, Google and Meta. The internet titans spent hundreds of millions of dollars, sent their chief executives to Washington and deployed trade groups and sympathetic scholars to quash two antitrust …

Regulating Big Tech gets a push
2 years, 2 months ago

Regulating Big Tech gets a push

Hindustan Times  

It was 16 years ago, in 2006, when the Oxford and Webster dictionaries recognised google as a verb to describe the act of looking something up on the internet. Through this period of boom, Google has not just retained its position as the gateway to the internet, but also entrenched it and expanded into new domains of personal digital devices …

Labour vows to end ‘trickle down’ tech by taking on digital giants
2 years, 3 months ago

Labour vows to end ‘trickle down’ tech by taking on digital giants

The Independent  

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Get our free View from Westminster email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Labour is vowing to end the era of “trickle down” technology …

Google backed into a corner as India, US and EU seek to take away its monopoly
2 years, 3 months ago

Google backed into a corner as India, US and EU seek to take away its monopoly

India Today  

Tech giant Google is under fire as several authorities across the world seek to dethrone its monopoly rule. Indian authorities are also ramping up their probe against Google with Rajeev Chandrasekhar, the Minister of State for Electronics and IT, spearheading the country’s role and response in the global antitrust drive. The DNPA is seeking a fair share in the distribution …

How Europe’s bold new rules for Big Tech could change the services you use
2 years, 9 months ago

How Europe’s bold new rules for Big Tech could change the services you use

CNN  

New York CNN Business — Apple users could soon install apps outside the App Store. By imposing new regulations on technology platforms deemed to be dominant “gatekeepers,” the Digital Markets Act could result in sweeping changes to how EU citizens — and potentially consumers around the world — interact with major tech companies, including Amazon, Apple, Google and Facebook parent …

Big Tech vs Red Tech and Diminishing Democracy in Digital Age
2 years, 10 months ago

Big Tech vs Red Tech and Diminishing Democracy in Digital Age

News 18  

In the third decade of the twenty-first century, democracies face a new adversary — technology. While the United States and the European Union have enabled the creation of penetrated and argumentative democracies — wherein all countries and civil society organisations can advocate for the regulation of big tech or the promulgation of General Data Protection Regulation standards — China has …

U.S. bill would stop Big Tech favouring its own products
3 years, 2 months ago

U.S. bill would stop Big Tech favouring its own products

The Hindu  

About a dozen U.S. senators from both parties on Monday formally introduced a bill that would bar Big Tech platforms, like Amazon and Alphabet's Google, from favoring their products and services. Senators Amy Klobuchar and Chuck Grassley's bill would prohibit platforms from requiring companies operating on their sites to purchase the platform's goods or services and ban them from biasing …

Antitrust actions have a long timeline
3 years, 3 months ago

Antitrust actions have a long timeline

China Daily  

A child takes part in an art exhibition using virtual reality devices at an art museum in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, earlier this month. Big antitrust actions have come at key moments in history－mostly on the heels of big technological breakthroughs, which the innovators have used to grab a larger share of the market leading to big profit windfalls. China has …

Antitrust actions have a long timeline
3 years, 3 months ago

Antitrust actions have a long timeline

China Daily  

A child takes part in an art exhibition using virtual reality devices at an art museum in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, earlier this month. Big antitrust actions have come at key moments in history－mostly on the heels of big technological breakthroughs, which the innovators have used to grab a larger share of the market leading to big profit windfalls. China has …

Regulations for big tech firms a global trend
3 years, 3 months ago

Regulations for big tech firms a global trend

China Daily  

JIN DING/CHINA DAILY In the United States, the executive branch, courts and the Congress are moving to restrict the dominance of the US tech giants. Big Tech's market cap over $9 trillion The combined market capitalization of the largest five high-tech giants reflects their dominance. Over the past decade, criticism against Big Tech has intensified, as evidenced by expanded antitrust …

Regulations for big tech firms a global trend
3 years, 3 months ago

Regulations for big tech firms a global trend

China Daily  

JIN DING/CHINA DAILY In the United States, the executive branch, courts and the Congress are moving to restrict the dominance of the US tech giants. Big Tech's market cap over $9 trillion The combined market capitalization of the largest five high-tech giants reflects their dominance. Over the past decade, criticism against Big Tech has intensified, as evidenced by expanded antitrust …

U.S. FTC meeting will scrutinize Big Tech's small deals
3 years, 4 months ago

U.S. FTC meeting will scrutinize Big Tech's small deals

The Hindu  

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission will hold its next open meeting on Sept. 15 to hear staff findings on deals that Big Tech firms like Facebook and Apple make which are sometimes too small to spark antitrust scrutiny, the agency said on Wednesday. The staff report will include Big Tech acquisitions from 2010 to 2019, some of which were not …

How Big Tech is faring against U.S. lawsuits and probes
3 years, 5 months ago

How Big Tech is faring against U.S. lawsuits and probes

The Hindu  

Big Tech platforms Alphabet Inc's Google and Facebook were hit with a series of antitrust lawsuits by the U.S. federal government and states on charges they are operating monopolies and abusing their power. Four lawsuits against Google The U.S. Justice Department sued Google in October, accusing the $1 trillion company of illegally using its market muscle to hobble rivals. Dozens …

Editorial: Time for an end to the freewheeling Big Tech era
3 years, 6 months ago

Editorial: Time for an end to the freewheeling Big Tech era

LA Times  

Another week, another high-profile effort to rein in Big Tech. President Biden joined the fray Friday with an executive order promoting competition in tech and other industries, calling on the Federal Trade Commission to scrutinize several practices by Big Tech companies that enabled them to build, defend and extend their market power. Big Tech companies insist that they aren’t standing …

Break them up? 5 ways Congress is trying to rein in Big Tech
3 years, 6 months ago

Break them up? 5 ways Congress is trying to rein in Big Tech

Associated Press  

WASHINGTON — Groundbreaking legislation is advancing in Congress that would curb the market power of tech giants Facebook, Google, Amazon and Apple and could force them to untie their dominant platforms from their other lines of business. The measures seek to rein in the tech giants in five ways: BREAKING THEM UP The legislation would bar the four companies from …

Biden elevates energetic critic of Big Tech as top regulator
3 years, 6 months ago

Biden elevates energetic critic of Big Tech as top regulator

Associated Press  

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Tuesday installed an energetic critic of Big Tech as a top federal regulator at a time when the industry is under intense pressure from Congress, regulators and state attorneys general. The selection of legal scholar Lina Khan to head the Federal Trade Commission is seen as signaling a tough stance toward tech giants Facebook, …

Is Big Tech prioritising power over innovation
3 years, 6 months ago

Is Big Tech prioritising power over innovation

The Hindu  

A moment’s gaze at people’s digital lifestyle reveals how their online experience has become a function of roughly a dozen applications that are powered by a few large firms. Taken together, these tech giants have a combined market value of $5 trillion and wield power over almost every single smartphone user’s digital life. Fortnite game maker Epic Games took Apple …

Bills that could force Big Tech breakups unveiled in House
3 years, 6 months ago

Bills that could force Big Tech breakups unveiled in House

The Hindu  

A group of House lawmakers has put forward a sweeping legislative package that could curb the market power of Big Tech companies and force Facebook, Google, Amazon or Apple to sever their dominant platforms from their other lines of business. It concluded that the four tech giants have abused their market power by charging excessive fees, imposing tough contract terms …

Bills that could force Big Tech breakups unveiled in House
3 years, 6 months ago

Bills that could force Big Tech breakups unveiled in House

Associated Press  

WASHINGTON — A group of House lawmakers put forward a sweeping legislative package Friday that could curb the market power of Big Tech companies and force Facebook, Google, Amazon or Apple to sever their dominant platforms from their other lines of business. The subcommittee said Amazon and Apple have “significant and durable market power” in the U.S. online retail market, …

Big Tech’s outsized influence draws state-level pushback
3 years, 9 months ago

Big Tech’s outsized influence draws state-level pushback

Associated Press  

New York state Sen. Michael Gianaris was ecstatic when Amazon named Long Island City in 2018 as a front-runner for its new headquarters, a project that would bring 25,000 jobs and $2.5 billion in construction spending to his district in Queens. “Traditional antitrust enforcement doesn’t work because Big Tech has become too big and too powerful.” Tech companies aren’t content …

Big Tech's outsized influence draws state-level pushback
3 years, 9 months ago

Big Tech's outsized influence draws state-level pushback

The Independent  

Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Get our free Inside Washington email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. But while the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission have filed major antitrust …

Breaking up Big Tech will not really solve the core problem
4 years ago

Breaking up Big Tech will not really solve the core problem

Live Mint  

A long overdue antitrust push is gaining steam. But it’s focusing on large tech companies like Facebook Inc. and Google-parent Alphabet Inc., which present complex problems that classic antitrust approaches won’t always solve. The best outcome might be for Big Tech to remain big, but to submit to a new framework of antitrust regulation that restricts the companies’ behaviour in …

US antitrust siege of tech widens with lawsuits vs Facebook
4 years, 1 month ago

US antitrust siege of tech widens with lawsuits vs Facebook

Associated Press  

WASHINGTON — The giant tech companies whose services are woven into the fabric of social life are now the targets of a widening assault by government competition enforcers. The Federal Trade Commission and 48 states and districts sued the social network giant, accusing it of abusing its market power to squash smaller competitors and seeking remedies that could include a …

US antitrust siege of tech widens with lawsuits vs Facebook
4 years, 1 month ago

US antitrust siege of tech widens with lawsuits vs Facebook

The Independent  

Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Get our free Inside Washington email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. The Federal Trade Commission and 48 states and districts sued the social network giant, …

For Big Tech, Biden brings a new era but no ease in scrutiny
4 years, 1 month ago

For Big Tech, Biden brings a new era but no ease in scrutiny

Hindustan Times  

The Obama-Biden administration was a charmed era for America’s tech companies — a moment when they were lionized as innovators, hailed as job creators and largely left alone. The social media companies’ CEOs rebuffed accusations of anti-conservative bias at a Senate hearing last month. He said he wants to see quickly crimped the social media companies’ long-held legal protections for …

For Big Tech, Biden brings a new era but no ease in scrutiny
4 years, 1 month ago

For Big Tech, Biden brings a new era but no ease in scrutiny

Associated Press  

WASHINGTON — The Obama-Biden administration was a charmed era for America’s tech companies — a moment when they were lionized as innovators, hailed as job creators and largely left alone. He said he wants to see quickly crimped the social media companies’ long-held legal protections for speech on their platforms. And he singled out Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg for scorn, …

As the Trump era comes to an end, what happens to Big Tech?
4 years, 2 months ago

As the Trump era comes to an end, what happens to Big Tech?

LA Times  

In the days before the 2020 election was called for Joe Biden, President Trump was on Twitter — doing battle with Twitter. On antitrust, for instance, there’s clear overlap between progressive calls to “ break up Big Tech ” — which Biden has nodded to but not endorsed — and the various tech antitrust investigations Trump has overseen. In one …

Google Lawsuit Marks End Of Washington's Love Affair With Big Tech
4 years, 2 months ago

Google Lawsuit Marks End Of Washington's Love Affair With Big Tech

NPR  

Google Lawsuit Marks End Of Washington's Love Affair With Big Tech Enlarge this image toggle caption Don Ryan/AP Don Ryan/AP This week could mark the official end of the long love affair between Washington and Silicon Valley. Even the Justice Department acknowledged that in this week's lawsuit, describing Google in its early days as "a scrappy startup with an innovative …

How big tech reset will impact India
4 years, 2 months ago

How big tech reset will impact India

Live Mint  

For much of their existence, the big four US tech giants—Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google—have been viewed as scrappy startups. On Wednesday, US President Donald Trump called for a break up of the Big Tech firms after both Facebook and Twitter took the “editorial” call to downplay leaked, unverified allegations about rival presidential candidate Joe Biden. “This should make it …

House panel says big tech wields monopoly power
4 years, 3 months ago

House panel says big tech wields monopoly power

Live Mint  

America’s biggest technology companies have leveraged their dominance to stamp out competition and stifle innovation, according to a Democratic-led House panel, which said Congress should consider forcing the tech giants to separate their dominant online platforms from other business lines. The report released Tuesday from Democratic staff of the House Antitrust Subcommittee capped a 16-month inquiry into the market power …

Congress Unveils Its Plan to Curb Big Tech’s Power
55 years ago

Congress Unveils Its Plan to Curb Big Tech’s Power

Wired  

Anyone who's paid even slight attention to the congressional investigation of the power wielded by tech giants won't be surprised by the report released Tuesday by the subcommittee’s Democrats. The report, which ends a 16-month investigation and includes a trove of internal documents, lays out the most thorough case yet that Big Tech exploits its advantages in unfair ways. As …

Five things to know about the Big Tech antitrust report
4 years, 3 months ago

Five things to know about the Big Tech antitrust report

Associated Press  

After years of calling Big Tech too big, Democratic lawmakers are calling for Congress to rein in Facebook, Google, Amazon and Apple by breaking them up, limiting future mergers and blocking self-dealing that could hurt competitors. BYE BYE, BUY BUY BUY The report attributes the “significant and durable market power” of the companies in large part to “a high volume …

Democrats call for Congress to rein in, break up Big Tech
4 years, 3 months ago

Democrats call for Congress to rein in, break up Big Tech

Associated Press  

WASHINGTON — Democratic lawmakers are calling for Congress to rein in Big Tech, possibly forcing Facebook, Google, Amazon and Apple to break up their businesses, while making it harder for them to acquire others and imposing new rules to safeguard competition. “By controlling access to markets, these giants can pick winners and losers throughout our economy.” In addition to proposing …

US lawmakers say Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple are anti-competition, Big Tech disagrees
4 years, 3 months ago

US lawmakers say Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple are anti-competition, Big Tech disagrees

India Today  

In a first-of-its kind report a US Senate Committee has alleged that the four big tech companies, which are Google, Apple, facebook and Amazon, are “kind of monopolies” last seen decades ago. The report that comes after testimonies of Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, note that the big …

U.S. House's antitrust report hints at break-up of Big Tech firms, lawmaker says
4 years, 3 months ago

U.S. House's antitrust report hints at break-up of Big Tech firms, lawmaker says

The Hindu  

The U.S. House of Representatives antitrust report on Big Tech firms contains a “thinly veiled call to break up” the companies, Republican Congressman Ken Buck said in a draft response seen by Reuters. The House antitrust subcommittee is expected to publish its report this week on Amazon.com Inc, Apple Inc, Facebook Inc and Google owner Alphabet Inc. A Buck representative …

House antitrust panel suggests breaking up big tech ‘monopolies’
4 years, 3 months ago

House antitrust panel suggests breaking up big tech ‘monopolies’

LA Times  

A House panel proposed a series of far-reaching antitrust reforms to curb the power of U.S. technology giants including Amazon.com Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google, the result of a yearlong antitrust investigation that found the companies are abusing their dominance. The recommendations, contained in a 449-page report from the House antitrust subcommittee, represent the most dramatic proposal to overhaul competition …

Discover Related