Could companies like Amazon, Google, and Facebook have been reined in before they became corporate superpowers? karaswisher talks with genebsperling, the director of the National Economic Council under President Obama
Then-Google CEO Eric Schmidt was friendly with the Obama team. Photo: Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images The biggest Big Tech companies have played an increasingly commanding — many think too commanding — role in most Americans’ daily lives over the last few years.
Listen, I recognize that there’s great value in many of these companies, and I’ve gotten great value in my life from them. But it’s not clear to me that Facebook needs to own WhatsApp and Instagram. But I think it is clear to me that when Facebook was making bad decisions about political ads or bad decisions about privacy, we would have been a better country if Instagram and WhatsApp could have offered competitive alternatives. And I don’t think that makes you anti-competition or Big Government.
But I think the right question is, with what we know now, with what we’ve seen, what type of an economy do we want? And I think one thing you’ve said, which I think is right, is, you can’t rely on the kindness or the good spirit of others. People will compete in the way they are allowed to compete. It’s up for us to put structures in place. And I think you were right that we didn’t see what could happen with Big Tech.
But my view, Kara, is that part of trying to talk about what your end goal should be is that none of us should hold on to past policy positions. We can debate what one should have done or should have known. But I think we know now that this is a real issue in our economy.Sperling: It threatens our basic values, and I think what has been good is to see the rise of a kind of new antitrust policy that is reminding people that it’s not just about price and consumer welfare.
It’s up to the government to set those rules, to ensure that level of economic dignity. So ensuring that there’s not too much economic domination in the private sector is not a new or fringe issue. It was the driving issue of the progressive era.
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