FTC Will Examine Tech Platforms like Google, Facebook and Amazon as Part of Competition Review

The Federal Trade Commission will examine the questions surrounding powerful tech platforms like Google and Facebook as part of a review of consumer and competition policy issues beginning later this year. From a report: Hearings into these issues, announced by FTC Chairman Joe Simons on Wednesday, could help frame the agency's actions with regards to tech going forward. Simons indicated his examination of tech platforms would be broad and a major part of the review. "It's the network effects," he told reporters on Wednesday. "It's the fact that they're two-sided platforms. It's the interaction between privacy and competition. And it's all new, so it makes it very appropriate to have this be the subject of hearings and for us to get input on that."

Sadly, the goal post moved long ago.

[Q-Hack!]

I predict that nothing will come of this. 50 years ago maybe, but large corporations today live in the new paradigm of monopolistic acceptability.

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[OffTheLip]

and large campaign contributions.

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[account_deleted]

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[account_deleted]

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Re:Sadly, the goal post moved long ago.

[xlsior]

Just keep in mind: being a monopoly is perfectly legal. It's abusing monopolies that can get companies in hot water. (or luke warm, in microsoft's case)

Follow the Money

[Anonymous Coward]

Incumbent lobbies funneled money into the Trump administration against these companies. If these companies will funnel some money into a Republican PAC, then the investigation will shut down without any findings.

What? You thought that Trump was making this personal because it was an effective way to negotiate for America? No, he made it personal because it sends the message, you scratch my back and I scratch yours. This is not being driven by policy.

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[Required Snark]

You're not seeing the big picture here. The problem is that they are competing too much. Since none of them are likely to be purchased or merged any time in the foreseeable future, they are going head to head for monopolistic control of the internet. That means users might have a choice, which is against Trump and Republican policy. If you doubt this, now that Time-Warner merged with AT&T, T-Moble wants to merge with Sprint, and that will happen. Soon we will only have two large cell phone carriers in

Disney?

[Midnight Thunder]

With the Disney acquiring Fox, surely they also need to be part of a competition review.

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[Actually, I do RTFA]

Or AT&T acquiring Time-Warner (although there are lawsuits around that.) Or Sprint/T-Mobile which just got announced.

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[ausekilis]

Or Comcast/NBC/Universal. Or Cox/Time Warner. Or Microsoft/Motorola. Or any other of the number of buyouts that happened to make an already wealthy company wealthier and expand their grip on the American Consumers dollar.

The whole point of our economy is to make money and promote competition. Right now there's so much focus on the former that the latter is all but gone - any new great idea is quickly bought before it can compete. We need that government intervention to make it easier for the little guy to s