Big Tech's Digital Robber Barons

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

10-15-2021

Abstract

The reputed behemoths of Big Tech are gaining enemies by the second. While millions of customers happily use Amazon, Google, Facebook, and the rest of this digital Legion of Doom every day, many in the government want to save us from the dastardly predators. These companies lure you in with their same‐day shipping of Clint Eastwood posters, one‐click discovery of who played the dean in Animal House, and easy ways to share the results of your “What Gilligan’s Island Character Are You?” quiz with your fake internet friends (middle school classmates you haven’t seen in decades, your second cousin’s neighbor’s ex‐wife, Vin Diesel, etc.), and — before you know it — Big Tech’s got you in its rapacious grasp. By the time you can google Russell Johnson’s Bacon number, you find yourself submitting to the monopolies’ power, with nothing left to do but say, “Thank you, sir, may I have another?”

Keywords

Big Tech, technology law and policy, antitrust

Publication Title

Regulation

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