Any solution that comes out of this committee will ultimately fail because the architects of the solution don't understand the nature of a technosocial world and the rapid pace of ICT development. They keep trying to apply an outmoded model to a new situation. #breakupbigtech
Fundamentally, they misunderstand how and why Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Apple acquire smaller companies: it's not to control the market share or to eliminate competition, it is to enhance the existing capabilities of their platforms. #breakupbigtech
To this end, Facebook's acquisition of Instagram (which they kept bringing up) should be viewed as Facebook buying a new piece of technology to be integrated into its platform, and not as buying out a competitor. This expands the assemblage with minimal effort. #breakupbigtech
It also allows Facebook to take ownership of a proven piece of technology and saves time on development and other such issues. The focus on the economic and marketplace impact of such activities obscures this as a product of a capitalist technosocial context. #breakupbigtech
Also, given the questions asked by the committee, it is clear that they haven't engaged with almost two decades worth of relevant literature on the technosocial implications of the products of Facebook, Apple, Google, and Amazon, nor how they structure the world. #breakupbigtech
If they had, they'd be more concerned with digital redlining, algorithmic discrimination, surveillance infrastructures and the ways that information is circulated on platforms. The only engagement with these things has been economic and partisan. #breakupbigtech
In fact, COVID misinformation and tech's response to it was framed as partisan censorship, rather than a needed response to the circulation of misinformation. In this context, it is impossible to see how any regulation from that body will be effective. #breakupbigtech
In any case, if these are the people who have taken it upon themselves to preserve our freedoms from "big tech," then we're all fucked.
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