"Republicans are dirty kikes " @microsoft.com>
2020-10-21 14:20:20 UTC
Bill Barr's Google 'Antitrust Inquiry' Is A Weaponized Farce
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20201020/09563045541/bill-barrs-google-antitrust-inquiry-is-weaponized-farce.shtml
Last month we noted how Bill Barr was rushing DOJ staffers (much to their
chagrin) to launch his "antitrust inquiry" into Google. Why? Three reasons.
One, it helps Trump allies and Google adversaries like "big telecom,"
Oracle, and Rupert Murdoch. Two, it helps put the utterly false narrative of
"social media unfairly censors Conservatives" into headlines during an
election. And three, it creates leverage over companies that have finally
just begun to take online hate speech and disinformation (a cornerstone of
Trumpism) seriously. Genuine concerns about "monopoly power" are the last
thing on these folks' minds.
Right on cue, Bill Barr this morning announced that the Department of
Justice is suing Google, claiming that the company's anticompetitive
practices in arenas such as search "have had harmful effects on competition
and consumers." The initial press release compares Google's dominance to
historical natural monopolies of note, such as 80's era AT&T:
"The antitrust laws protect our free market economy and forbid monopolists
from engaging in anticompetitive practices. They also empower the Department
of Justice to bring cases like this one to remedy violations and restore
competition, as it has done for over a century in notable cases involving
monopolists over other critical industries undergirding the American economy
like Standard Oil and the AT&T telephone monopoly. Decades ago the
Department’s case against Microsoft recognized that the antitrust laws
forbid anticompetitive agreements by high-technology monopolists to require
preinstalled default status, to shut off distribution channels to rivals,
and to make software undeletable. The Complaint alleges that Google is using
similar agreements itself to maintain and extend its own dominance."
You're to ignore that this is the same Bill Barr DOJ and Trump
administration that has rubber stamped every last fleeting whim of natural
telecom monopolies (like the recent T-Mobile merger). Monopolies like
Comcast that, unlike search, leave consumers trapped in punitive, expensive
relationships they simply cannot opt out of. The DOJ's announcement was
launched in cooperation with a handful of GOP states, apparently because
many other states -- many of which are pursuing their own inquiries into
legitimate problems at Google -- didn't think much of Billy Barr's rushed
effort.
Many lawyers don't think much of the effort either, noting that the rushed
complaint is, as you might expect, filled with odd misses and whiffs. Like
here, where the DOJ attempts to claim that Google's efforts to reduce
smartphone and device bloatware imposed by wireless carriers is something
that should be illegal:
Others were quick to note that Google's effectively being lambasted by
Barr's DOJ because its search engine -- which, unlike telecom, consumers can
choose not to use -- is extremely popular:
Again, that's because this is being driven by cronyism and election season
politics, not a serious concern about monopoly power. Worse, while the DOJ's
announcement will be applauded by well-intentioned folks eager to see
Google's power knocked down a peg, tackling Google's domination in a
politicized, half-assed fashion could actually make it harder to hold Google
accountable down the line. The DOJ of course wants to have its cake and eat
it too, providing Trump with election season fodder while breathlessly
insisting that's not what's happening:
"So, I think it's fair to say, this case has nothing to do with that
subject," [Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey] Rosen said. "This is an
antitrust case about competitive conditions in the marketplace, and as I
said earlier, it's been a matter of nonpartisan, bipartisan, kind of
across-the-board interest."
To be very clear, there's plenty of things Google does (especially on the
advertising end) that can be deemed anticompetitive, inconsistent, and
infuriating, many of which could use a serious good faith inquiry. But folks
like Bill Barr and the GOP mainstays applauding this inquiry don't genuinely
care about monopoly power, unchecked corporate power, or the downsides of
consolidation. They simply don't. The DOJ (under both parties) pretty
consistently doesn't either:
Mindless rubber stamping of megamergers and flimsy antitrust enforcement is
what the United States does. It's our biggest pastime outside of baseball.
The one Trump example usually trotted out to claim otherwise, AT&T's lawsuit
to stop the AT&T Time Warner merger, was more about pissing off CNN for
Trump and helping Rupert Murdoch than any serious concern about media
consolidation. Rupert wanted the deal blocked after Time Warner first
rebuffed his merger affections in 2014, and AT&T rejected his offer to buy
CNN twice in 2017. It's extremely likely he's the motivating force in this
effort as well.
So despite what folks like Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz would have you believe,
there's no evidence that monopoly power has ever been a genuine concern for
the modern Trump GOP (simply look at its treatment of telecom, airlines,
banks, and countless other heavily consolidated and monopolized sectors that
routinely churn out a steady stream of consumer and competitor nightmares).
And yet folks who've built entire careers on the backs of not giving a
flying shit about corporate power, consolidation, and monopolization will
now get to spend two weeks before an election pretending otherwise:
Why look at all the very serious, good faith, anti-monopolists just super
and genuinely concerned about mindless consolidation and corporate power:
The idea that Jordan, Cruz, or Cotton genuinely care about corporate power,
monopolies, or U.S. antitrust enforcement is laughable, and it's astonishing
that anybody could take this performative stage play seriously. While
they're doing their best to pantomime genuine concern, these gentlemen see
the vilification of "big tech" as a matter of political convenience,
providing leverage in their ongoing efforts to force the carriage of
political disinformation, with the added perk that it's of great benefit to
GOP megadonors and longstanding GOP allies like Rupert, AT&T, and Oracle.
Again, reporting indicates that while there may have been some kernels of
good faith intention at the heart of the inquiry, Barr quickly got to work
politicizing the effort -- and rushing it against the wishes of staff so it
could be used as election season fodder. Trampling the law and government
integrity for his authoritarian boss is what Bill Barr does. It's unclear
how many examples are needed for the message to get through. Barr and
friends should no longer enjoy the benefit of the doubt.
It's a lot like the sordid TikTok affair, which had more to do with cronyism
(nabbing Oracle a hosting deal) and political convenience (amplifying
xenophobia) than any genuine concern about consumer privacy or internet
security. Bill Barr's inquiry is politicized bad faith bullshit dressed up
as serious adult policy making, and it's relatively astonishing how many
folks (including both of the country's biggest cable news outlets and
numerous tech reporters) literally can't tell the difference, or be bothered
to include even the faintest hint of context that the investigation may not
be entirely on the up and up.
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20201020/09563045541/bill-barrs-google-antitrust-inquiry-is-weaponized-farce.shtml
Last month we noted how Bill Barr was rushing DOJ staffers (much to their
chagrin) to launch his "antitrust inquiry" into Google. Why? Three reasons.
One, it helps Trump allies and Google adversaries like "big telecom,"
Oracle, and Rupert Murdoch. Two, it helps put the utterly false narrative of
"social media unfairly censors Conservatives" into headlines during an
election. And three, it creates leverage over companies that have finally
just begun to take online hate speech and disinformation (a cornerstone of
Trumpism) seriously. Genuine concerns about "monopoly power" are the last
thing on these folks' minds.
Right on cue, Bill Barr this morning announced that the Department of
Justice is suing Google, claiming that the company's anticompetitive
practices in arenas such as search "have had harmful effects on competition
and consumers." The initial press release compares Google's dominance to
historical natural monopolies of note, such as 80's era AT&T:
"The antitrust laws protect our free market economy and forbid monopolists
from engaging in anticompetitive practices. They also empower the Department
of Justice to bring cases like this one to remedy violations and restore
competition, as it has done for over a century in notable cases involving
monopolists over other critical industries undergirding the American economy
like Standard Oil and the AT&T telephone monopoly. Decades ago the
Department’s case against Microsoft recognized that the antitrust laws
forbid anticompetitive agreements by high-technology monopolists to require
preinstalled default status, to shut off distribution channels to rivals,
and to make software undeletable. The Complaint alleges that Google is using
similar agreements itself to maintain and extend its own dominance."
You're to ignore that this is the same Bill Barr DOJ and Trump
administration that has rubber stamped every last fleeting whim of natural
telecom monopolies (like the recent T-Mobile merger). Monopolies like
Comcast that, unlike search, leave consumers trapped in punitive, expensive
relationships they simply cannot opt out of. The DOJ's announcement was
launched in cooperation with a handful of GOP states, apparently because
many other states -- many of which are pursuing their own inquiries into
legitimate problems at Google -- didn't think much of Billy Barr's rushed
effort.
Many lawyers don't think much of the effort either, noting that the rushed
complaint is, as you might expect, filled with odd misses and whiffs. Like
here, where the DOJ attempts to claim that Google's efforts to reduce
smartphone and device bloatware imposed by wireless carriers is something
that should be illegal:
Others were quick to note that Google's effectively being lambasted by
Barr's DOJ because its search engine -- which, unlike telecom, consumers can
choose not to use -- is extremely popular:
Again, that's because this is being driven by cronyism and election season
politics, not a serious concern about monopoly power. Worse, while the DOJ's
announcement will be applauded by well-intentioned folks eager to see
Google's power knocked down a peg, tackling Google's domination in a
politicized, half-assed fashion could actually make it harder to hold Google
accountable down the line. The DOJ of course wants to have its cake and eat
it too, providing Trump with election season fodder while breathlessly
insisting that's not what's happening:
"So, I think it's fair to say, this case has nothing to do with that
subject," [Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey] Rosen said. "This is an
antitrust case about competitive conditions in the marketplace, and as I
said earlier, it's been a matter of nonpartisan, bipartisan, kind of
across-the-board interest."
To be very clear, there's plenty of things Google does (especially on the
advertising end) that can be deemed anticompetitive, inconsistent, and
infuriating, many of which could use a serious good faith inquiry. But folks
like Bill Barr and the GOP mainstays applauding this inquiry don't genuinely
care about monopoly power, unchecked corporate power, or the downsides of
consolidation. They simply don't. The DOJ (under both parties) pretty
consistently doesn't either:
Mindless rubber stamping of megamergers and flimsy antitrust enforcement is
what the United States does. It's our biggest pastime outside of baseball.
The one Trump example usually trotted out to claim otherwise, AT&T's lawsuit
to stop the AT&T Time Warner merger, was more about pissing off CNN for
Trump and helping Rupert Murdoch than any serious concern about media
consolidation. Rupert wanted the deal blocked after Time Warner first
rebuffed his merger affections in 2014, and AT&T rejected his offer to buy
CNN twice in 2017. It's extremely likely he's the motivating force in this
effort as well.
So despite what folks like Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz would have you believe,
there's no evidence that monopoly power has ever been a genuine concern for
the modern Trump GOP (simply look at its treatment of telecom, airlines,
banks, and countless other heavily consolidated and monopolized sectors that
routinely churn out a steady stream of consumer and competitor nightmares).
And yet folks who've built entire careers on the backs of not giving a
flying shit about corporate power, consolidation, and monopolization will
now get to spend two weeks before an election pretending otherwise:
Why look at all the very serious, good faith, anti-monopolists just super
and genuinely concerned about mindless consolidation and corporate power:
The idea that Jordan, Cruz, or Cotton genuinely care about corporate power,
monopolies, or U.S. antitrust enforcement is laughable, and it's astonishing
that anybody could take this performative stage play seriously. While
they're doing their best to pantomime genuine concern, these gentlemen see
the vilification of "big tech" as a matter of political convenience,
providing leverage in their ongoing efforts to force the carriage of
political disinformation, with the added perk that it's of great benefit to
GOP megadonors and longstanding GOP allies like Rupert, AT&T, and Oracle.
Again, reporting indicates that while there may have been some kernels of
good faith intention at the heart of the inquiry, Barr quickly got to work
politicizing the effort -- and rushing it against the wishes of staff so it
could be used as election season fodder. Trampling the law and government
integrity for his authoritarian boss is what Bill Barr does. It's unclear
how many examples are needed for the message to get through. Barr and
friends should no longer enjoy the benefit of the doubt.
It's a lot like the sordid TikTok affair, which had more to do with cronyism
(nabbing Oracle a hosting deal) and political convenience (amplifying
xenophobia) than any genuine concern about consumer privacy or internet
security. Bill Barr's inquiry is politicized bad faith bullshit dressed up
as serious adult policy making, and it's relatively astonishing how many
folks (including both of the country's biggest cable news outlets and
numerous tech reporters) literally can't tell the difference, or be bothered
to include even the faintest hint of context that the investigation may not
be entirely on the up and up.