December 11, 2020
ALTHOUGH THEY SHOULD REALLY BE PAYING USERS:
Facebook Has Only Itself to Blame for Drastic Remedy (Joe Nocera, December 9, 2020, Bloomberg)
On Wednesday afternoon, the FTC and 48 attorneys general filed dual antitrust suits designed to undo the merger of Facebook and Instagram -- as well as Facebook's takeover of WhatsApp, another potential rival that it bought in 2014 for a staggering $19 billion. (WhatsApp also had no revenue and 55 employees at the time Facebook bought it.)This is a radical proposition -- the U.S. government hasn't contemplated breaking up a company since the Justice Department sued Microsoft in 1998. But I've long believed that there is simply no other way to curb Facebook's immense monopoly power.In the attorneys general complaint, the plaintiffs contend that Facebook employs a "buy-or-bury strategy that thwarts competition and harms both users and advertisers."
Adam Smith famously said: "People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices."
Imagine going back in time to tell him that in 2020 our greatest monopolistic concern will be that a "monopoly" not only provides its popular service for free but seeks to provide other popular services for free.
Posted by Orrin Judd at December 11, 2020 2:45 PM