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Matt Stoller Profile picture
@matthewstoller
Apr 12, 2022 • 32 tweets • 11 min read • Read on X
1. Here's Apple CEO Tim Cook today arguing that antitrust laws against big tech are bad for privacy and bad for national security. In honor of his speech, I thought I'd do a little thread on just how bad these tech firms are for American security.
2. Let's start with Apple, which systemically transferred technology to Chinese firms after Tim Cook in 2016 made a $275 billion investment pledge to invest in China. theinformation.com/articles/facin…
3. Apple sourced "more components from Chinese suppliers, signed deals with Chinese software firms, collaborated on technology with Chinese universities" and "directly invested in Chinese tech companies." It helped bring "“the most advanced manufacturing technologies” to China.
4. In 2021, Apple and Google removed a voting app created by the Russian political opposition leader after pressure from the Russian government. Security! Prestige Worldwide! nytimes.com/2021/09/17/wor…
5. Apple lobbied on behalf of forced labor in China, seeking to weaken the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act. washingtonpost.com/technology/202…
6. Apple Maps nearly sent chef Jose Andres into sending me into Russian-controlled territory. It was an accident! Black leather gloves! Research and development! axios.com/jose-andres-be…
7. Apple's app store is so full of scams and garbage, and the firm is so inattentive, that one dude on Twitter - @keleftheriou - is constantly embarrassing Apple by showing their claims of protecting users are essentially fraudulent. theverge.com/2021/4/21/2238…
8. Apple handed over "priceless knowledge" to Chinese firms on how to build its products. This directly contributed and is still contributing to the rise of China's tech industry. Apple is *more* invested in China, not less. theinformation.com/articles/how-a…
9. "Apple and Facebook provided customer data to hackers who masqueraded as law enforcement officials, according to three people with knowledge of the matter."

So much security! Putting in the man hours to study the science. bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
10. Facebook regularly helps scammers impersonate U.S. soldiers, and does nothing to stop it. nytimes.com/2019/07/28/tec…
11. Google's Android software accidentally gave away the location of secret military activities.

Last week we put liquid paper on a bee! It died.
washingtonpost.com/world/a-map-sh…
12. Still, it's not like Apple actually uses slave labor in China to make its products oh wait seven Apple suppliers are accused of doing that, um, Tim Cook cares about your privacy. theinformation.com/articles/seven…
13. Apple tried to refuse unlocking an iPhone to help solve a shooting at a Navy base in Pensacola. There was a court warrant, so this wasn't some glorious stand on privacy. cnbc.com/2020/01/14/app…
14. Google abandoned a contract to deliver the Pentagon drone AI technology, leaving the DOD with no alternative supplier. washingtonpost.com/news/the-switc…
15. While pretending to stand up for human rights as its rationale for not being in the Chinese market, Google secretly tried to develop a censored version of its search engine in China that would help the Chinese government surveil its citizens. theintercept.com/2018/08/01/goo…
16. Facebook profited from advertisements peddling illegal opioids. The ads remained on Facebook for months after an NBC News investigation, and weeks after U.S. officials declared opioid addiction a public health crisis. cnbc.com/2017/11/14/fac…
17. We need big tech research to compete with China, right?

" 10 percent of the collective AI research labs of Facebook, Google, IBM, and Microsoft were housed in China by the end of 2020."

oops!

defenseone.com/ideas/2021/08/…
18. But what about TikTok? Don't we need someone to take on TikTok? Glad that you asked. Facebook is why we *have* a TikTok problem. promarket.org/2020/08/07/tec…
19. Amazon, of course, actively facilitated as much Chinese seller activity into the US as possible, thus spawning a wave of counterfeits and dangerous products. ImageImage
20. The economies of scale facilitated by firms like Amazon and Facebook are just great.
21. Naturally Google, Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, and Apple do wonderful political work to protect us. Microsoft, for instance, lobbied on behalf of Chinese telecom firm Huawei. bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
22. NYT: "Amazon ‘Reviewing’ Its Website After It Suggested Bomb-Making Items"

That seems bad! nytimes.com/2017/09/20/tec…
23. Not exactly a national security problem, but it's sort of adjacent.
24. It's not America, but Zuckerberg at one point tried to remove all newspaper content in Australia from Facebook, in order to threaten the government over a new antitrust law to help newspapers. nytimes.com/2021/02/17/tec…
25. Also, when Mark Zuckerberg talks up the importance of national security and how Facebook can help America stand up to China, remember that he once asked Chinese President Xi Jinping to name his child. nytimes.com/2015/10/27/tec…
26. Also once Zuckerberg actually blurbed Xi Jinping's book and made his employees read Chinese government propaganda. amazon.com/Xi-Jinping-Gov…

qz.com/308023/faceboo… Image
Ok, what am I missing? Are there any big tech-related national security vulnerabilities out there I've forgotten? The answer is yes, but I can't remember them. So help me out.
27. I didn't know that Google and Chinese giant Tencent had a patent sharing agreement to engage on "deeper collaboration on innovative new technologies." How very IG Farben-Standard Oil of them. dw.com/en/google-and-…
28. And of course Apple doesn't bother to patch zero day exploits, which is to say it doesn't protect its products from hackers. intego.com/mac-security-b…
29. And another one, Facebook has no idea what happens with user data it collects. Economies of scale! vice.com/en/article/akv…
30. Google, Facebook, and Apple were all duped into releasing information used to harass and sexually extort minors. Economies of scale! bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
31. And another in the 'big tech is bad for security' files, via @ndcarson. Amazon is profiting from the sale of malware to users that can steal sensitive data.

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More from @matthewstoller

Matt Stoller Profile picture
Aug 27
1. Since 2008, Google has systemically destroyed evidence relevant to antitrust investigations. And judges are beginning to hold Google accountable. Today I was a courtroom to watch Judge Leonie Brinkema, the latest judge, who is presiding over Google's third antitrust trial. Image
2. Why so many trials? Well Google has many lines of business! One trial was on its control of app stores. Another trial was about search. This one's on its power over online ad software that manages publishing sites and ad buying. All involve Google's document destruction.
3. In the app store trial, Judge Donato gave jury instructions known as 'adverse inference' meaning that the jury should consider Google operating in bad faith for destroying evidence. Google lost. In the search trial, Judge Mehta was scornful of Google, and ruled against them.
Read 16 tweets
Matt Stoller Profile picture
Aug 23
"Our tool ensures that [landlords] are driving every possible opportunity to increase price even in the most downward trending or unexpected conditions.”

BOOM. That's illegal, and antitrust enforcer Jonathan Kanter just dropped the hammer.
"In its pitch to prospective clients, RealPage describes AIRM’s and YieldStar’s access to competitors’ granular, transactional data as a meaningful tool that it claims enables landlords to outperform their properties’ competitors by 2–7%."

Interesting.
Price-fixing clip art!

(This is from a landlord's internal training presentation.) Image
Read 16 tweets
Matt Stoller Profile picture
Aug 16
1. Ok why is Kamala Harris talking about price-fixing, gouging, mergers, and general pricing bullshit? Obviously it polls well. But why? Let's go over the *evidence* for why Americans are mad at big business over pricing. Let's start with rent. propublica.org/article/yields…
Image
2. A company called RealPage works with the biggest corporate landlords to hold apartments empty so they can increase prices. That's illegal. How important is this conspiracy to increased rents? “I think it’s driving it, quite honestly,” said Andrew Bowen, a RealPage executive.

propublica.org/article/yields…Image
3. There are private antitrust cases against RealPage. The Biden-Harris administration is investigating and will probably bring an antitrust suit soon. The FBI already raided one of America's biggest corporate landlords. finance.yahoo.com/news/fbi-searc…
Image
Read 23 tweets
Matt Stoller Profile picture
Aug 14
Anti-semitism is not a meaningful problem in the United States and the paranoid musings of Jewish boomers is annoying.
Chuck Schumer probably experienced a bit of antisemitism as a kid. But seriously stop it. Jews are super-empowered in America in virtually every way, which he knows when he talks to the disproportionate number of Jewish Senators. We aren't defined by our grievances.
There are anti-semites in America, but that's just because we're a big country so of course there are jerks. Some of them are even violent because we're a violent country.

But Americans like Jews more than any other religious group. pewresearch.org/religion/2023/…
Image
Read 5 tweets
Matt Stoller Profile picture
Aug 12
1. Here are some possible policy ideas for Harris to go at prices in food, rent, medicine, and general costs. Call it the "Break Up Ticketmaster Agenda" since everyone hates Ticketmaster and the Biden-Harris administration is suing that corporation.
2. First, sign onto Ron Wyden's bill to stop corporate landlords from colluding to jack up rent prices. Antitrust enforcer Jonathan Kanter is already going at RealPage software, the hub of the conspiracy. People will get it. wyden.senate.gov/news/press-rel…
theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…
3. Pledge to block the Kroger-Albertsons supermarket merger. Both Nevada and Arizona will be hit by this merger with higher food prices and lower wages, as Senator Jacky Rosen notes.
economicliberties.us/our-work/myth-…
Read 14 tweets
Matt Stoller Profile picture
Aug 6
1. Where is Tim Walz on monopoly power? Well, his track record is excellent, with a few blemishes. Let's start with a law he signed to block hospital mergers, which killed the $14B Sanford/Fairview combination. Hospitals drive a third of health care costs. boondoggle.substack.com/p/how-minnesot…
2. In 2023, Minnesota passed the broadest law enabling the right-to-repair of devices, though it exempted "farm and construction equipment, video game consoles, specialized cybersecurity tools, motor vehicles and medical devices." Still very good.
pirg.org/media-center/r…
3. Walz signed a law to ban junk fees. "Beginning next year, Minnesota businesses can no longer add service fees, health and wellness surcharges or other mandatory charges to customers’ bills at the end of a transaction." Image
Read 11 tweets

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