What do you think of the FTC case against Facebook? I’m only bringing it up here because it affects our jobs as a lot of us work/have worked for tech start-ups. I personally love capitalism and progress yet having worked for a tech start ups, the data Facebook (and the other 3s) had against us was insurmountable. Is it still possible to work for a start up app and retire from equity? I lean toward no, as each day passes. Thanks for your thoughts!!

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1. Anti-trust as a concept was really meant to protect consumers from unfair price fixing that could emerge from market oligopolies. I’m not really sure how anyone can make an antitrust case against what is effectively a suite of FREE products and services.

2. You might argue that consumers PAY with the data they provide, but at the same time, this data actually improves the quality of the user experience, by simultaneously increasing the relevance of content for the users and the targeting and efficiency of the advertising for the paying customers.

3. Don’t like Facebook’s products? There’s always Twitter, Snapchat, Tick Tock, Viber, iMessage, Tinder, Parler, LinkedIn, WickrMe, etc. Perhaps none with the same network effect power, but there are alternatives and choice.

4. M&A is all about building competitive advantage. How can the FTC/AGs single out one company for using it as it was meant to be used?

5. There is no price fixing between Facebook and the other big tech companies. In fact, the ad auction is designed to enable even the smallest of businesses to compete effectively against larger ones in terms of what it costs to reach potential customers. This is the OPPOSITE of antitrust. Facebook actually encourages fair economic competition within the framework of capitalism.

6. As far as big tech having data “against” us, I’m not sure what you mean. The reality is that it actually knows little of who I am, apart from my tastes as a shopper or consumer of information. Sure it can at times make successful inferences about things I might be interested in reading/watching/buying, but for the most part, it knows little about my inner life, my values, and the aspects of what makes me, me.

To me, this lawsuit is a convenient way for the government to make some money to offset the costs of the Covid-19 financial shortfalls...

likesmart

Of the "don't like Facebook?" options you listed, only LinkedIn is even vaguely similar to Facebook as a product.

Seriously, iMessage? 2 billion people are going to go buy Apple hardware to run an Apple-only messaging app? And people are going to organize their kids' birthday parties on Tinder (which is 18+)? It's hard to assume a good faith argument with inclusions that ridiculous.

Your other arguments are equally flimsy:

1/2. If Facebook's product is free, where does their massive revenue flow come from?

4. What?? The whole point of antitrust law is to put limits on what a company can do to increase its market share, whether it be by M&A, loss leading, price fixing, etc. M&A is deliberately limited. Big mergers literally have to be approved in advance to ensure that consumers won't be harmed by the reduced competition. Facebook isn't getting singled out here, it's just that few other companies (outside of tech) have anything like Facebook's market share in their field.

5. You don't need price fixing for antitrust. If you buy up every significant competing supplier for some resource, you don't need to conspire with anyone to drive the prices up (this is often called a monopoly). You can just control the supply and auction it off to the highest bidder, which, coincidentally is exactly what Facebook does!

6. It should be pretty obvious that "I don't care so you shouldn't either" isn't going to convince anyone that doesn't already agree with you.

And I'm sure the FTC had COVID-19 in mind when they started this investigation back in June 2019 🙄. Put down the conspiracy theories, please.

From my perspective at least, it does seem like fb/google have an overwhelmingly dominant position in the market. While there are other smaller products in the same spaces they're in, it does seem like they're using their market strength to eliminate potential competitors.

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I may be wrong, but I feel there is still sufficient opportunity for startups and big companies to build business models around data aggregation and collection, and still not go overboard. There's plenty of non intrusive data that can be used to build great products. .

It's what she deserves.

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