Google lawsuit: Too little, too late

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 Google lawsuit: Too little, too late

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Read more on - Polity | Economy | Schemes | S&T | Environment

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• From a garage: The company that the US government today calls the "crippler of competition, reducer of consumer choice and stifler of innovation" started from a humble garage. It started with a search engine, and then became the giant conglomerate called Alphabet.
• Direct attack: US's Justice Dept. filed a lawsuit against Google (Alphabet) "for the sake of consumers, advertisers, companies reliant on internet economy". Eleven states joined in. They all want to stop Google's anti-competitive practices. But it may be too late, as this was needed years ago.
• Damage done already: Today, it is clear that large parts of economy and society have been already deeply damaged by such companies, using their unlimited money supply. But at least finally the govt. has started accepting that this cannot go on.
• Repeat of 1998: In the landmark case "United States v. Microsoft Corp" in 1998, the Justice Dept. sued Microsoft, right when Google was just born! MS was the villain at that time, crushing smaller firms using its omnipresent Windows OS. Government won the case many years later. 
• Impact of that victory: It is said that the victory led to more freedom for the internet, and the birth of many companies that themselves later became monopolies - Google in search, Amazon in social media, Apple in hardware, Facebook in social media, etc. These 5 firms now dominate world commerce and stock markets. Those who started these firms are the richest men on Earth.
• Blind eye: Over the years, these five firms gathered more and more power, and regulators simply turned a blind eye towards them. 

1. A law was totally misunderstood - the Section 230 of 1996 Communications Decency Act
2. It gave broad immunity to internet firms for what travels on their platforms
3. Abolition of S.230 may be considered a silver bullet to solve the problem of "Big Tech"
4. But is there really a single entity called "Big Tech"? The entire ecosystem may need to be understood first before taking any action.

• Many tools needed: The govt. may use the S.230 tool, but more will be needed - large fines, new state and federal laws, enforcement of regulations, more funding for agencies like FTC (Federal Trade Commission), media scrutiny, etc.

1. Apple and its App store control - The govt. may need to make fairer rules regarding fees and approvals
2. Amazon selling its own goods on its own retail platform - Separating Amazon retail products from the store it runs is a solution. Also, putting up walls between Amazon's various businesses is needed
3. Facebook and its killing the rivals & dominating online news and discourse on events - Cut off Instagram and WhatsApp away from FB, and make some rules about how FB will enforce "editorial decisions" rather than being run on Zuckerberg's whims
4. Google and its data domination - In 2013, the FRC decided to end its investigation after Google did some voluntary changes but nothing changed. Its own staff produced a damning report claiming bad practices in search and advertising (violating antitrust laws)

• Time for action: What the government does now will have far-reaching consequences on democracy and free speech itself.

Read more on - Polity | Economy | Schemes | S&T | Environment

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