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Don't Break Up Big Tech
Townhall.com ^ | June 16, 2020 | John Stossel

Posted on 06/16/2020 9:50:22 AM PDT by Kaslin

It's the oddest thing. The more America's Big Tech companies such as Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Twitter have contributed to keeping America's economy afloat during the coronavirus lockdown, the louder the voices get to break them up or to tie them up into regulatory knots.

At the same time that the White House and many conservatives are pushing to "bring our businesses and manufacturing back home" from nations such as China, plenty of so-called nationalists see our globally dominant, high-tech firms as the enemy. Do they realize that there is nothing that the communists in Beijing would wish to do more than to knock Amazon, Apple or Google from their king-of-the-hill status and replace them with state-assisted enterprises such as Huawei or Alibaba? Washington's assault against America's trillion-dollar companies would aid and abet Chinese President Xi Jinping's efforts.

But it is happening. Last week, Tesla CEO Elon Musk blasted Amazon for being a "monopoly" and tweeted, "Time to break up Amazon." Conservatives piled on. Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri has introduced new antitrust legislation against the tech companies. President Donald Trump has threatened to regulate social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook "strongly." Some in Congress want an investigation into Google's search engine algorithms to make sure they aren't discriminating against conservative websites.

I have been a loud critic of the anti-conservative bias of the big Silicon Valley tech firms, and conservative leaders must keep the pressure on these firms to level the playing field. New polling commissioned by a group I run, the Committee to Unleash Prosperity, and conducted by Remington Research Group revealed that a majority of conservative activists believe tech companies engage in censorship or display bias against conservatives.

When conservatives were asked, "Do you believe the federal government should be involved in regulating political speech on the internet?" the results were shockingly one-sided. Seventy-six percent of respondents said no, the government should keep its hands off regulating it, the technology companies and their platforms. The same poll asked conservatives which issue is most important to them when casting their vote for federal offices such as senator or representative. Just 1% said "online censorship."

It is reassuring. From the start of the internet age, conservatives such as Grover Norquist, me and many others have argued the best way for America to dominate the digital age of online commerce was to keep the internet tax- and regulation-free. That is what we have mostly done in America, and the rewards have been bountiful. Millions of jobs and the spurt of innovation and entrepreneurship has the top six American tech companies with a higher production capacity than the entire GDP of most other nations in the world.

We have seen firsthand how the gig economy saved our nation from plunging into a Great Depression over the past three months. These were terrible times, with as many as 40 million people losing their jobs. But thanks to our multitrillion-dollar tech sector -- and not just Big Tech but also hundreds of new entrepreneurial online services -- commerce kept flowing; food was available on the shelves; gas was in the tanks; packages were delivered; and paychecks were processed. They saved America from utter chaos and severe deprivation.

It was the services, know-how and infrastructure built by our pioneering tech giants that enabled the tens of thousands of small tech firms to sprout up from nowhere, and these firms will be essential to securing the next phase of recovery. Our construction firms; steel, oil and gas industries; hospitals; media; and food processing and manufacturing plants are all dependent on the kinds of just-in-time inventory and supply chain management made possible by the tech sector. In many ways, the success and the array of business-to-business services provided at little cost (often for free) from companies such as Google, Facebook, Amazon and the like are what make the next generation of tech firms possible through free market competition. Innovation stops monopolies, not government lawyers.

High tech isn't swallowing up small businesses; it is saving them. A new report from the Connected Commerce Council, which analyzed the impact of internet platforms and digital tools on small companies in the COVID-19 crisis, found almost 1 in 3 (31%) business owners said that without digital tools, they would have had to close part or all of their business. Nearly 70% said digital tools have been useful during the COVID-19 crisis.

There is now a call from both parties for multitrillion-dollar government "infrastructure bills." Wait a minute. Our most critical infrastructure today is the gig economy connectivity through satellites, internet platforms, clouds, fiber optic cables, the sophisticated nationwide electric grid system and the like, which were almost all built out by the very tech and telecommunications companies that are now coming under fire for being too successful and making too much money.

Conservatives are rightly suspicious of Big Tech's political power and liberal slant. The recent effort by Amazon in refusing to sell a book critical of the coronavirus lockdown is just a recent example of how the tech world seems to go out of its way to appease the left and to alienate and even silence the right.

But the one thing free market conservatives are even warier of is big government. When asked, "Who do you think should regulate Big Tech companies like Google: the federal government or the free market?" almost two-thirds answered "the free market."

We learned big-time during the coronavirus crisis that tech isn't broken. The last thing we need now is for Trump or Congress to fix it.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: liberaltarian; smallbusiness
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1 posted on 06/16/2020 9:50:22 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

Libertarians.

They’re the tools of Mr. Burnses of the world.


2 posted on 06/16/2020 9:51:27 AM PDT by rintintin (qu)
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To: Kaslin

The problem is, these companies would not have gotten so large without government preferences. Government restrictions are an attempt to undo government mistakes - but rather than heavy-handed anti-trust breakups, companies like Facebook and Twitter simply need to lose their preferences.


3 posted on 06/16/2020 9:55:33 AM PDT by Mr. Jeeves ([CTRL]-[GALT]-[DELETE])
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To: Kaslin

I despise Amazon’s politics but they do run a good mail order store
and there are many competitors so i believe they should not be broken up

but AssBook and Twit and especially GooGoo all have very little effective competition in their main core lines of trade ......and should definitely be split up per our nation’s antittust laws, imho


4 posted on 06/16/2020 9:55:39 AM PDT by faithhopecharity (Politicians are not born, theyÂ’re excreted. Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 to 43 BCE))
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To: rintintin

No kidding.

And Stossel has always been the poster boy for liberaltarianism.


5 posted on 06/16/2020 9:55:53 AM PDT by Responsibility2nd (Click my screen name for an analysis on how HIllary wins next November.)
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To: Kaslin
Conservatives piled on. Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri has introduced new antitrust legislation against the tech companies. President Donald Trump has threatened to regulate social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook "strongly." Some in Congress want an investigation into Google's search engine algorithms to make sure they aren't discriminating against conservative websites.

So much for having confidence we can win on the battlefield of ideas.

6 posted on 06/16/2020 9:56:42 AM PDT by semimojo
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To: Kaslin

“It’s the oddest thing. The more America’s Big Tech companies such as Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Twitter have contributed to keeping America’s economy afloat during the coronavirus lockdown, the louder the voices get to break them up or to tie them up into regulatory knots.”

How much did these companies contribute to making the lockdown happen via advocacy and propaganda in order to gain market share?

Amazon, for example, runs the Washington Post.

This influential newspaper advocating for the close of businesses and lockdown in turn brings greater market share to Amazon by closing down its physical store competitors and making people ordered to stay at home more dependent on Amazon.

How many people may have bought from Amazon for the first time ever because they had to?


7 posted on 06/16/2020 9:57:29 AM PDT by ifinnegan (Democrats kill babies and harvest their organs to sell)
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To: rintintin
There are Libtards and Libertards and Mr. Stossel is a Libertard.

The great Libertard Gorsuch just made it easier for Big Biz to manage their diversity policies at great expense to traditional religions.

Google, Amazon, Apple, etc. are making it increasingly difficult for conservatives and religious folks to express their ideas in the so-called "open marketplace of ideas". Gorsuch just made traditional religion illegal.

So where do we all go? The catacombs?

8 posted on 06/16/2020 10:01:28 AM PDT by who_would_fardels_bear
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To: semimojo

The “battlefield of ideas” is a minefield where the mines only go off when conservatives step on them.


9 posted on 06/16/2020 10:02:42 AM PDT by who_would_fardels_bear
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To: ifinnegan
Soon we will all be atomized staying at home to work and "play" video games. Everything will be delivered to us via Amazon and all our content will come from GoogleBook via MicroApple devices.

The "free Market" is such a brave new thing!

10 posted on 06/16/2020 10:05:44 AM PDT by who_would_fardels_bear
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To: who_would_fardels_bear

Big Tech. Making India Great Again and pissing on the American worker for 30 years.

Split them all up and shut then down.


11 posted on 06/16/2020 10:07:40 AM PDT by Starcitizen (Communist China needs to be treated like the pariah country it is. Send it back to 1971)
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To: semimojo

“President Donald Trump has threatened to regulate social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook “strongly.” Some in Congress want an investigation into Google’s search engine algorithms to make sure they aren’t discriminating against conservative websites.”

Are any of these companies on the stock exchange or have taken government money for anything? If so, this would make a great class action suit that could easily show their censorship of conservative thought.


12 posted on 06/16/2020 10:09:36 AM PDT by EQAndyBuzz (Cloward-Piven is finally upon us.)
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To: who_would_fardels_bear
The “battlefield of ideas” is a minefield where the mines only go off when conservatives step on them.

So change the battlefield.

It isn't the government that set it up that way, it's the culture.

Turning to the government to fix it is a fools errand.

13 posted on 06/16/2020 10:10:29 AM PDT by semimojo
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To: Kaslin

Take away the h-1B visa cookie jar.


14 posted on 06/16/2020 10:11:02 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn...)
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To: Kaslin

Bust the lefty big tech trusts—they have turned into racist anti-white institutions, vicious censors—and they are the ones who need to be canceled.


15 posted on 06/16/2020 10:11:48 AM PDT by cgbg (Kneeling is a half measure--lefties need to dig a six foot hole and bury themselves in it.)
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To: who_would_fardels_bear

Yes.

Transhumanism.


16 posted on 06/16/2020 10:13:49 AM PDT by ifinnegan (Democrats kill babies and harvest their organs to sell)
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To: EQAndyBuzz
Are any of these companies on the stock exchange or have taken government money for anything?

Sure. Probably all of them.

If so, this would make a great class action suit that could easily show their censorship of conservative thought.

I'm not sure what you're saying. If you mean these companies lose their 1st Amendment rights when they sell stock or contract with the government you probably want to rethink that.

17 posted on 06/16/2020 10:14:56 AM PDT by semimojo
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To: Kaslin

Amazon, Google, Twitter, and other Big Tech companies often engage in anti-competitive and abusive practices that subvert the free market and damage the country. Unfortunately, many conservatives are so committed to laissez-faire that they are willing to accept such ills as somehow conducive to business and economic growth.


18 posted on 06/16/2020 10:21:45 AM PDT by Rockingham
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To: Kaslin

“The more America’s Big Tech companies such as Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Twitter have contributed to keeping America’s economy afloat during the coronavirus lockdown, the louder the voices get to break them up or to tie them up into regulatory knots.”

Counter point: the bigger those companies get, the more they erroneously believe they are entitled to or have rights to restrict what people think say see or know.


19 posted on 06/16/2020 10:34:27 AM PDT by Darksheare (Those who support liberal "Republicans" summarily support every action by same.)
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To: Kaslin

Well, while I’m generally sympathetic to this kind of argument, these companies have a virtual monopoly over the flow of information. That cannot be allowed.


20 posted on 06/16/2020 11:03:57 AM PDT by TBP (Progressives lack compassion and tolerance. Their self-aggrandizement is all that matters.)
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