re: Google threatens to ban ads on The Federalist at the request of NBC

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Sounds like a business op for conservative nerd to build platform. Js

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Normally I would agree, but when it comes to Google, it is literally an impossible task at this point.

Google is the definition of a monopolistic force.

They essentially OWN the internet.

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Normally I would agree, but when it comes to Google, it is literally an impossible task at this point.

Google is the definition of a monopolistic force.

They essentially OWN the internet.

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The Google situation is interesting to me. It’s easy to say they are a monopolistic force because Alphabet is the 4th largest tech company in the world, but when you dive in it’s less straightforward. Alphabet is a conglomerate, so the question is - a monopoly in what?

Their search engine? Well it’s free, so hard to argue that their monopoly hurts consumers/competition, at least in the traditional sense.

Their email service? Also free.

Maps service? Free.

Web browser? There’s competition in this space, but also.. free.

YouTube? Free.

Most of their paid services (cloud storage, mobile OS, voice assistants, and other hardware offerings) have healthy competition. The space where they have a true monopoly is their ad service. But it’s not so much a monopoly on internet advertising as much as a monopoly on data.

So what do you do about it? If you break Google up into pieces, the individual pieces become almost worthless. All of those free products exist because you pay for them with your personal data, which is used for ad targeting. Which begs the question - who are the “consumers” that the anti-trust laws should be protecting here? Is it the companies paying for targeted advertising, or the individuals “paying” for services with their data?

I would argue that we should have gotten serious about protection of personal data on the internet years ago, but nobody seemed to care then and people still don’t seem to care now outside of the political impacts. Hell, I use gmail and Google Maps a ton myself.

Anyhow I think it’s an interesting topic because big data is a rapidly growing elephant in the room when it comes to marketplace regulation and consumer protection. I think Congress needs to do a better job of being proactive when it comes to tech and e-commerce instead of reactive. By the time we figure out how to handle big data, we will be in the shite with artificial intelligence..

Anyhow, /rant

You can write this in ink and that is Tigerdroppings will suffer the same fate within the next 36 months if not sooner.

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For those thinking this could only come from the left though remember back 20 to 30 years ago, the right was the one pushing for censorship for certain content. Movie ratings, warnings on CDs, and a whole lot more

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It was hardly exclusively from the right.