{"id":175956,"date":"2020-10-13T18:51:00","date_gmt":"2020-10-13T23:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2020\/10\/13\/ok-this-looks-like-a-semi-serious-proposal\/"},"modified":"2020-10-13T18:51:00","modified_gmt":"2020-10-13T23:51:00","slug":"ok-this-looks-like-a-semi-serious-proposal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2020\/10\/13\/ok-this-looks-like-a-semi-serious-proposal\/","title":{"rendered":"OK, This Looks Like a Semi Serious Proposal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Antitrust regulators are looking <a href=\"https:\/\/www.adweek.com\/programmatic\/regulators-reportedly-mull-forced-google-chrome-sale\/\">forcing Google to sell its chrome browser as well as parts of its advertising network<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>This is a good start.<\/p>\n<p>What also should be applied is the remove the special stock that gives the founders outsize voting rights.<\/p>\n<p>Many of the anti-competitive behaviors flow from the belief of their founders that they are supermen beyond the limitations of mortal men, and so they need not concern themselves with the rules.<\/p>\n<p>See Neumann at WeWork, Zuckerberg at Facebook, and Musk at \u2026\u2026\u2026 well \u2026\u2026\u2026 everything, as well as Page and Brin at Google.<\/p>\n<p>What&#8217;s more, the recompense for the loss of these voting rights would be small, so you can do it on the cheap.<\/p>\n<p>Also, prohibit any corporate acquisitions by these companies.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>As was the case with Facebook and Instagram, this was a purchase happened because Facebook was relentlessly tracking its users, and came to see it as a threat:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: #2b00fe;\">Regulators are considering a breakup of the Google empire, including a forced sale of its dominant web browser Google Chrome and certain aspects of its ad-tech stack. <\/p>\n<p>A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2020\/10\/10\/feds-may-target-googles-chrome-browser-for-breakup-428468\">Politico report<\/a> cites several sources with knowledge of the discussions taking place as the U.S. Department of Justice and several state attorneys general prepare to file suit against the online behemoth. <\/p>\n<p>Official proceedings are expected to take place within weeks, following months of speculation over how government officials intend to rein in Google\u2019s dominance of the $130 billion a year online advertising business\u2014of which Google controls <a href=\"https:\/\/www.adweek.com\/programmatic\/us-antitrust-regulators-are-poised-for-google-crackdown\/#summary-section-1\">37.2%<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Google Chrome commands a 66.3% share of the global web browser market, according to GlobalStats. Its ad stack, popularly referred to as DoubleClick, comprises both buy- and sell-side tools as well as its dominant ad-serving tool. <\/p>\n<p>This set of tools, as well as Google\u2019s \u201cclosed\u201d operating model, has prompted many to accuse Google of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.adweek.com\/programmatic\/how-googles-ad-stack-works-and-why-regulators-are-probing-its-dominance\/\">exerting undue control over all aspects of the online advertising market<\/a> (see video below), and its 2015 decision to block third-party ad-buying tools from purchasing ad space on YouTube was widely criticized.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #2b00fe;\">\u2026\u2026\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #2b00fe;\"><br \/>The latest media reports come within a week of the House Judiciary Committee\u2019s Subcommittee on Antitrust publishing a 449-page report roundly <a href=\"https:\/\/www.adweek.com\/programmatic\/key-takeaways-from-congress-digital-competition-report\/\">criticizing Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>Among the recommendations in the report were that authorities impose \u201cstructural separations,\u201d either by way of a forced sale of certain parts of each company\u2019s assets or assurances parts of their businesses are firewalled. Other recommendations included rules to prevent \u201cself-preferencing,\u201d plus the promotion of \u201cinteroperability\u201d with third parties and an overhaul of M&amp;A laws.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #2b00fe;\">\u2026\u2026\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #2b00fe;\">Speaking at Adweek\u2019s virtual NexTech conference on the same day the CEOs of Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google were appearing before the congressional subcommittee behind last week\u2019s report, NYU professor Scott Galloway said, \u201cThey need to be broken up.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Antitrust regulators are looking forcing Google to sell its chrome browser as well as parts of its advertising network. This is a good start. What also should be applied is the remove the special stock that gives the founders outsize voting rights. Many of the anti-competitive behaviors flow from the belief of their founders that &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[367,479,437,382],"class_list":["post-175956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-internet","tag-monopoly","tag-regulation","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175956"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175956\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}