Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/06/04/appetizer-then-main-course.html
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Yeah, I don’t buy big telco secretly lobbying for breakup of big tech for precisely the reason you gave: they don’t want to set that precedent. I’m sure they aren’t breaking up in tears that big tech is the villain de jure, and probably would rather just keep quiet that draw undue attention to themselves.
The reason why there is a lot more energy for breaking up big tech is three fold. First, it is something that factions of the left and right agree on. It is a lot easier to advocate for the breakup of facebook when everybody hates them. Second is that nazi clips on facebook get better press than “comcast screwed over some family you have never heard of”. Finally, the most important reason is that while both industries have powerful lobbying and campaign contribution programs (to which tech is a relative newcomer), big telco has way more direct regulatory capture. To break up telcos you don’t have to just overcome their big lobbying effort, you have to work around their shills in the FCC.
So one way to look at this is imagine you are Elizabeth Warren and want to jump start a new era of trust busting. The easy route is probably to start working on tech companies – they have few defenders and more bad press. If that works you can hope that the established precedent helps you overcome the more entrenched protections of the telecom industry.
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Honestly feels like the political class ‘teaching’ the new tech upstarts how to pay properly. The telcos have been throwing money at the ‘concerned’ politicos for generations, now our vaunted leaders are looking to give the tech giants similar motivation to buy their votes.
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The anti-trust energy is in the minds of people who care about justice and the mouths of politicians pandering to the electorate. No actual antitrust action has been taken, and it never will, not since Ronny Raygun changed the reason it can be done to simple consumer harm from economic destruction. As long as there is lobbying, there will be consolidation and consumer rape.
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Personally, I’m far more into breaking up telco more than “Big Tech”. Because telco really does have a monopoly – I literally have one choice for internet service where I live with no competition. For all the talk of the content of the Internet being reduced to five websites, it really isn’t. You don’t have to use Facebook or Twitter or even Google. The indie Internet is out there, just niche. It’s connecting to it that’s the issue.
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