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Starting now...House Judiciary Antitrust #BigTechHearing on Online Platforms and Market Power https://judiciary.house.gov/calendar/eventsingle.aspx?EventID=3113
Rep. Nadler says it's effectively impossible to use the internet w/o using one of the 4 companies before the committee. But couldn't one use a Windows based PC, a Firefox browser, search on Duck Duck Go or Bing, shop on Walmart online, & use Snapchat for social media easily...
Rep. Jordan alleges that Big Tech is out to get conservatives. But technology has been a tool that has led an explosive growth in speech around the world including conservative voices as I discussed https://techliberation.com/2018/09/06/the-problem-with-calls-for-social-media-fairness/
Rep. Sensenbrenner's question is about censorship and possible bias about conservatives. Content moderation decisions should be separate from antitrust and a break up could actually make it harder to do https://www.mercatus.org/bridge/commentary/facebook-and-antitrust-part-3-will-structural-remedies-solve-alleged-problems
Rep. Nadler asking about the Facebook acquisition of Instagram. It's hard to remember but this was far from a sure bet and went through thorough scrutiny at the time. https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/07/antitrust-regulation-rapidly-changing-marketplace-requires-humility/
Rep. Johnson asks about the App store's power over small businesses and developers. A @actonline a trade group of app makers and @Deloitte found positive effects on app makers from having such platforms available https://actonline.org/wp-content/uploads/Deloitte-The-App-Economy-in-US.pdf
We're on our second set of questions about Google's decisions regarding pursuing or not pursuing military contracts. So a reminder antitrust is designed to address competition issues. I'm not sure how a break up or other competition policy remedy would change such a decision.
Rep. Raskin bringing up the boycott of advertisers by Color of Change when asking Facebook about disinformation. If Facebook was really a monopoly it would seem like such a boycott wouldn't really be possible. Also your reminder again that #antitrust is about competition policy.
