Last week, President Donald Trump issued an executive order.
Directed at the quarter-century-long abuse of law in which Big Tech companies have engaged – and Big Government has allowed.
In the order, Trump calls for reevaluation of the (lack of) enforcement of both the nation’s antitrust laws – and Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act.
These few Big Tech companies – are out-of-control behemoths. A very small number of monstrous entities – that dominate the planet’s multi-trillion-dollar-per-year tech market.
And perhaps the biggest reason why we must address this?
These few corporate monsters dominate not just the Tech Sector – but the Government Sector.
They are able to secure the most favorable of government policies – their monstrous money and influence can buy.
Big Tech Market Caps:
Apple: $1.38 trillion
Microsoft: $1.38 trillion
Amazon: $1.23 trillion
Google: $976 billion
Facebook: $643 billion
Twitter: $25 billion
Google dominates Web search – 91.54% of US searches take place on their platform. And Google owns YouTube – which dominates online video platforms.
Facebook has 2.6 billion active users worldwide. The planet has 7.8 billion people – only about half of which have access to the Internet. So Facebook has 2/3 of the entire online planet – on their platform.
Apple and Google dominate the device applications market.
Half of all US online purchases – are purchased from Amazon. And that data was compiled – prior to the titanically stupid China Virus lockdown.
Amazon owner Jeff Bezos’s net worth has increased by about $30 billion – during just the first two months of this hiatus from sanity.
Yes, Twitter is comparatively small – market cap wise. But they dominate the live-blogging platform sector. Seriously: name another. Of course – you can’t. Conservatives try to start one – and Apple’s app store censors it.
These – and more – are monstrous antitrust issues.
And these monstrous trusts all abuse their power by – amongst many other ways – silencing conservatives. Which is a monstrous Section 230 issue.
We the People need to address all of these Big Tech abuses – to address the most damaging abuse of all:
Big Tech and Big Government constantly working together – against the interest of We the People.
Section 230 is itself perhaps the largest crony gift Big Government has ever given anyone.
Big Tech companies could never achieved their monstrous dominance without it.
Nestled safely inside their crony 230 cocoon for the last quarter century – Big Tech companies grew, and grew, and…
Let us look at two additional examples of Big Government’s Big Tech cronyism.
One that shows the damage inside-baseball cronyism does – and the other that demonstrates the damage of Main Street cronyism.
#1:
In 2015, the Big-Tech-sycophant Barack Obama Administration handed Big Tech a huge crony gift:
The imposition of the patently absurd Network Neutrality.
Net Neutrality does a lot of very stupid policy things.
One of the many cronyisms Big Tech gets from it?
No matter how much Internet bandwidth Big Tech uses – Net Neutrality outlaws their being charged for it.
As you have probably already surmised – Big Tech uses a LOT of bandwidth.
And the only other people who pay for bandwidth – are We the People.
So We the People would be paying MUCH more for Internet access – to subsidize Big Tech’s massive free rides.
Thankfully, President Trump rapidly undid Obama’s Net Neutrality cronyism.
Speaking of our wallets subsidizing Big Tech’s wallets….
#2:
In the summer of 2018 we were witness to one of the most shameless displays ever – of multi-government abuse of our money to benefit a Big Tech company.
Amazon was looking to site its second headquarters. And governments all across the country were tripping over themselves – to out bid each other with our money to bribe them.
Amazon thought one Big Government crony handout was good – but two would be better.
With Two New Headquarters, Will Amazon Get to Double Dip on Tax Breaks?
Of course. Because – of course.
Bezos had chosen New York – and Arlington, Virginia…right across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C.
But then New York Democrat Congressman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez accidentally swerved into being correct – and shamed New York into dropping its bribe. Which caused Amazon’s Bezos to loudly drop his plans for New York.
Except about six months later….
It May Not Be HQ2 but AOC Declares Victory and Trolls Amazon over New York Expansion
Bezos is siting in NY after all – without the massive crony tax gifts.
Which should tell us a lot.
Like: Bezos knew where he wanted to locate his two new HQs from the very beginning. But pretended he didn’t – to get a nationwide, multi-government crony bribe war going.
“The staggering (crony giveaway) sums raise what has becoming an increasingly popular question: Are incentives a smart investment?”
The answer: absolutely not. Nor are they fair – to anyone.
Nationally-Globally:
E-commerce-dominating Amazon competes with retailers – large and small, online and brick-and-mortar – all over the world. NONE of which are getting these Big Government favors.
So it is decidedly unfair to literally millions of other companies – to crony benefit one of the largest companies on the planet.
Locally:
Amazon’s new Arlington, Virginia neighbors – commercial and residential – will now be paying MUCH more to live and work…exactly where they lived and worked before.
Property and other taxes will massively increase – to make up the massive tax gifts Arlington’s government has given Amazon.
Rental and home purchase prices will increase – as more people will be competing for a now-smaller residence pool.
Of course, Arlington residents’ salaries haven’t increased. But their out-of-pocket expenses to live and work – to subsidize Amazon and its bigfoot presence – dramatically have.
And their quality of life just took a massive downturn. As they will have to deal with tens of thousands of new people – clogging up the exact same number of roads, buses, subways, stores and restaurants.
Shocker: Arlington’s citizenry knows and understands this.
Arlington, Va. Residents Furious Over Vote to Give Huge Tax Breaks to Amazon HQ2
But why would Big Government listen to We the People?
When there is big cronyism to be given Big Tech.
In exchange for big campaign contributions. In exchange for big cronyism. In exchange for big campaign contributions. In exchange….
It is why Trump’s executive order is so important.
From an antitrust and a Section 230 perspective.
And why its execution and implementation – is even more important.
From a Big Tech-Big Government cronyism perspective.
We must begin reining in all of this insanity.
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