Opinion: Until now, the harms of big tech giants were hidden from the public because they offer free or low-cost services to consumers. But low prices mask a deep threat to our society
In other words, these four corporations command bridges over which our news, entertainment, goods and services now flow, serving as the digital infrastructure of swaths of the American economy. These dominant platforms, whose market capitalization surpasses the gross domestic product of many large nations, function as the quasi-governmental gatekeepers of America’s commerce and communications.
A monopoly set off the American Revolution, as Americans threw the tea trafficked by the tea monopolist, the East India Co., into Boston harbor. Throughout the 19th century, judges and legislators dripped scorn on monopolists.
And legislatures acted, quite frequently. In the industrial age, Congress passed federal antitrust laws in 1890, 1913, 1936, and 1950. It launched major investigations of corporate power four times in the 20th century. Rep. Emanuel Celler, who ran one of these investigations in the very same committee chaired by Cicilline, made the case in 1950 for freedom in business as a bulwark of democracy, using his perch to examine monopoly power in steel, ticketing, newsprint, aluminum and baseball.
By 1998, this philosophy was so inculcated in our governing elites that Larry Summers linked American global primacy not to ideals of freedom, but to corporate and institutional dominance,that “whether it is AIG in insurance, McDonald's in fast food, Walmart in retailing, Microsoft in software, Harvard University in education, CNN in television news—the leading enterprises are American.
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