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Title: Break up the Google-Facebook-Amazon web monopoly
Source: USA Today
URL Source: https://www.usatoday.com/story/opin ... s-ev-ehrlich-column/759803001/
Published: Oct 19, 2017
Author: Ev Ehrlich
Post Date: 2017-10-19 16:01:10 by Tooconservative
Keywords: None
Views: 1975
Comments: 27

Serious legislation is required to combat the countless abuses of power by 'The Web Trust.'

Policy makers are beginning a long overdue reappraisal of the giant website and social media companies (“edge” providers) that dominate the Internet today — or as they might have been called a century ago, "The Web Trust."  

Facebook spread lies for money, grossly distorting our elections. Google has been hit with a whopping $2.7 billion dollar fine in Europe for biasing its search results towards pay-for-play favorites. Amazon’s acquisition of Whole Foods suggests its stranglehold on online shopping is targeting the brick and mortar world. And consumers are starting to understand how relentlessly they are tracked and their identities probed by The Web Trust’s omnipresent advertising machine. Even the edge companies’ usual boosters are asking if they should have “non-discrimination obligations consistent with our traditional concepts of common carriage” — the strictest form of regulation we’ve seen in this sector.

Our society has always protected itself from monopolists, be they utilities, railroads, oil companies, or financiers, acting against abuses while preserving innovation and economic growth. Most of those early monopolies followed the same pattern as The Web Trust — after an initial burst of competitive activity, the landscape quickly became dominated by a handful of monopolistic giants.

That problem is repeating itself in force within the Internet system, largely because so many of these platforms — Google, Facebook, Amazon and the like — are really “networks” that connect users to each other. The larger they get, the more indispensable they become to users seeking to reach each other — they are “natural” monopolies. That scale allows them to insinuate themselves into other markets as Google has done, morphing from a core search business into YouTube videos, Android smartphones, and, most perniciously, data mining and digital advertising.

Meanwhile, other industries and businesses become little more than grist for the monopolists’ mill. The edge giants dwarf the cable, telco and satellite companies who spend billions on faster networks that the edge companies then commandeer, free riding off the value created by this ever-improving connectivity. Features like home assistants, 4K television and virtual/augmented reality exist not because Google or Apple invented them — they’ve been science fiction staples for years — but because ultrafast wired and wireless infrastructure has been built to support them.

The creative industries are also victims of The Web Trust’s expanding power.  Newspapers, film and music companies and artists now provide the raw material that companies like Google and Facebook scrape and reassemble for the consumer, hijacking most of the economic value of their work, whether legally or illegally. Why report news, check facts and pay serious editors and writers when it all simply becomes fodder for Facebook’s indiscriminate newsfeed? Why make recordings if they will show up on YouTube’s “free” economy, helping Google sell more ads but generating scraps for artists and musicians

And while these abuses all cry out for remedy, federal policymakers seem stuck on a hamster wheel litigating and re-litigating the “net neutrality” rules for broadband providers (who support neutrality), while dodging the problems created by the giants on the edge.

The FCC is right to revisit the illogical “public utility” rules imposed on broadband companies by former FCC Chair Tom Wheeler, who seemed eager to do The Web Trust’s bidding. Unlike search or social media, connectivity is an innovative, fluid market with competing wired and wireless options that have continually improved consumers’ ability to reach anybody or anything, anywhere. We now have not just companies, but whole systems and technologies like cable, fiber, satellite, cellular, DSL and other options that compete for your attention. The FCC is right to reject obsolete Ma Bell era regulation that denies this basic fact.

But the more pressing question is: What obligations should be imposed on the Web Trust giants as they embed themselves ever further into our lives? How do we assure ourselves that the “users” they connect us to are human or that the search results they feed us are based on merit — not pay for play (or worse, algorithmic racism).

It’s time to consider whether to break up the Google search and advertising functions, or to deny safe harbors that protect the tech platforms if they turn a blind eye to sex trafficking or commercial piracy. We need a new privacy Bill of Rights to demystify the algorithms that track and tag you and shape your on-line experience.  

In these partisan times, it speaks to how dangerous The Web Trust has become that both Republicans and Democrats are calling for action and reform. If Congress and the administration want to preserve a truly open internet, they need to become the trustbusters for a new, digital generation.

Ev Ehrlich is president of ESC Co., an economics consulting firm, and was undersecretary of commerce from 1993 to 1997.

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Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 12.

#4. To: Tooconservative (#0) (Edited)

Well, I have very mixed emotions/ thoughts on this subject.

First of all I hate all the Sears stores going out of business. When I was growing up, virtually everything we owned was bought at Sears, from the refridgerator to the washing machine. And most of the stuff still works 70 years later whereas modern stuff most of which is made in China, only works for a year or two , and as soon as the warranty expires it quits working. When mom passed away, I donated her still-working Kenmore "wringer-type" washing machine to a museum.

But Sears, and also Macy's and many other stores are not adapting fast enough to the times and the new reality of internet ordering which most customers, or at least the younger ones, tend to prefer. And I have had a pretty bad experience recently with both Sears and Macy's when trying to order something online. Both said I could pick up the item the same day at their/my nearest store but it didn't happen. In the case of Sears the promised "same day" turned out to be 2 weeks, and it looks like its going to be same thing with Macy's. When I order from Amazon, I get it within two days, not 2 weeks.

And right now, although I'm retired, I want to get a job somewhere during the Christmas holiday season to supplement my rather tiny SS check. And Amazon is hiring bunches of people for their local distribution center, Sears and Macy's are not so I'm probably going to end up working for Amazon. It's like the old saying, If you cant lick them, join them.

interpreter  posted on  2017-10-20   0:14:52 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  


#12. To: interpreter (#4)

First of all I hate all the Sears stores going out of business.

Sears is NOT going out of business because of the internet. In FACT,the reverse is true. IF Sears had stayed true to their mail order/catalogue origins and created a internet "catalog" and continued to focus on small retail outlets situated in more rural areas that basically served as pick up points and places to buy tools and appliances,they would still be thriving.

Where they made their mistake was going "upscale" with uber expensive buildings located in major shopping centers in urban environments. The same environments that are on bus lines and attract the "Urban Youts" that never bother to go to school because they are members of the Master Race who can't be failed and don't need to learn anything to hold a job because they are the Nation's Pets,and have no intention of getting a job anyhow.

It is these roaming bands of urban black male AND female youts/thugs that hit the upscale shopping centers because they are on bus lines and easy to reach with their "free" bus passes,are loaded with upscale stores they can steal designers fashion items from,as well as plenty of mostly female or elderly shoppers to rob in the parking lots. Which quite naturally causes these women and elderly people to shop from the safety of their homes and not even have to pay sales taxes usually,never mind worry about being robbed and/or beaten for no reason other than they are white and lack the ability to defend themselves.

Ever notice an almost complete lack of uniformed police at these mega-shopping centers? Blame the owners. They don't want the police patrolling their parking lots because they are afraid of creating the impression that shopping there is dangerous. Which,of course,means that shopping there IS dangerous.

*I* have never had any problems shopping at shopping centers even though am elderly now because I am alert,probably don't strike most people as being harmless,and I am always armed and ready,willing,and able to remove any attackers from the planet. Make no mistake about it,any group of thugs that tries to attack me will be leaving the area short several members,and maybe with a fresh outlook on life.

It is the THUGS and their easy access to the mega malls that killed Sears,K-Mart,and a BUNCH of other retail chains. Wal-Mart mostly escaped because they started building mega-stores on property THEY own and control,and it seems like most of these mega Wal-Marts are located on the outskirts of suburbs.

Now the roaming gangs of black thugs are even running businesses out of their own neighborhoods with the roaming gangs of shoplifters organized on social media to meet for grab and runs at certain times in certain stores.

Call me a racist if you want,but random white people don't gather together to loot stores.

sneakypete  posted on  2017-10-20   9:26:04 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  


Replies to Comment # 12.

#15. To: sneakypete (#12) (Edited)

Tremendous post. Great observations. Especially about Sears' demise.

(Same reason Malls died: THUG EPIDEMIC.)

Liberator  posted on  2017-10-20 10:09:52 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  


#17. To: sneakypete, interpreter (#12)

IF Sears had stayed true to their mail order/catalogue origins and created a internet "catalog" and continued to focus on small retail outlets situated in more rural areas that basically served as pick up points and places to buy tools and appliances,they would still be thriving.

Sears and Pennys and Spiegel and Montgomery Ward all found their catalog sales drying up. And shipping was starting to hurt them.

So they went where the customers were going: malls in the Seventies through the Nineties.

And when the Walmarts moved in, they were able to undercut the prices on those big wasteful mall stores with their giant buildings that wasted up to a fourth of their floor space. Walmart didn't waste any floor space. So the malls started dying because of Walmart. And Amazon is finishing off what's left.

The last big mall in my rural area will close in the next few years. Waldenbooks gone, Radio Shack too. Sears gone and now JCPenny closing. All they have left is clothing for teen girls and young women, bath boutiques, a big nail salon, a small hair salon, cruddy mall theater, a vape store, a yuppie coffee shop, a small dollar store, and an attached Staples with its own entrance. About a third of their store slots stay empty all the time. It was already hard hit by the Walmart superstore a few blocks away and Amazon is finishing it off.

Tooconservative  posted on  2017-10-20 13:25:21 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  


#21. To: sneakypete (#12)

Well, I have to say you are pretty sneaky. Your first paragraph is pretty much true if you go back far enough in history. I do agree that Sears should have kept their catalogue sales intact but along with some big stores where customers could go to and pick up their purchases if they so desired.

But then, in the following paragraphs, you started sneaking in some weird crap which I dont agree with.

Anyhow, I was talking primarily about today and not what happened 50 years ago. Any business, if it wants to survive, has to adapt to the latest development in retail sales, which is internet sales. If Sears would have kept its catalogue sales, it probably would have helped Sears adapt I am pretty sure. But they didn't, and now they're failing to adapt to the changing times big time.

I am Sears' biggest fan, and if they would hire me as their CEO, I'm pretty sure I could right the ship before it sinks.

interpreter  posted on  2017-10-20 16:12:11 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  


End Trace Mode for Comment # 12.

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