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Decoder with Nilay Patel

Tech antitrust is about to get really weird

Decoder with Nilay Patel

Vox Media Podcast Network

Technology, Business

4.33.2K Ratings

🗓️ 18 December 2024

⏱️ 37 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Today we’re talking about antitrust policy and tech, which is at a particularly weird moment as we enter the second Trump administration. A lot of tech policy is at a weird moment, actually, but antitrust might be the weirdest of them all — the pendulum has swung back and forth on antitrust policy pretty wildly over the past few years, and it’s about to swing again under Trump. So I asked Leah Nylen, an antitrust reporter for Bloomberg News and a leading expert on this subject, to come on the show and help break it all down.  Links:  Trump’s antitrust trio heralds Big Tech crackdown to continue | Bloomberg Trump picks FTC Commissioner Andrew Ferguson to lead the agency | Politico Trump picks Gail Slater to head Justice Department's antitrust division | Reuters Trump names Brendan Carr as his FCC leader | The Verge Trump’s FTC pick promises to go after ‘censorship’ from tech companies | The Verge Breaking down the DOJ’s plan to end Google’s search monopoly | The Verge US v. Google redux: all the news from the ad tech trial | The Verge Tech leaders kiss the ring | The Verge DOJ antitrust chief is ‘overjoyed’ after Google monopoly verdict | Decoder This is Big Tech’s playbook for swallowing the AI industry | Command Line Credits: Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. Our producers are Kate Cox and Nick Statt. Our editor is Callie Wright. Our supervising producer is Liam James. The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Support for Decoder comes from Stripe.

0:03.0

The world of commerce and payments is constantly in flux.

0:06.0

Stripe was created to help businesses stay ahead of the curve in an age of digital transformation.

0:12.0

Stripe strives to help entrepreneurs grow their businesses and fuel the global economy,

0:18.0

leading to more opportunities for everyone.

0:20.0

Financial infrastructure we can rely on,

0:22.4

that's Stripe, and the future of business. To learn how Stripe can help your business make progress,

0:27.9

visit Stripe.com.

0:31.7

Hello, and welcome to Decoder. I'm Neil Appetal, editor-in-chief of The Verge, and Decoder

0:35.1

is my show about big ideas and other problems.

0:43.0

Today, we're talking about antitrust and tech, which is at a particularly weird moment as we enter the second Trump administration. A lot of tech policy is at a weird moment, actually, but

0:47.1

antitrust might be the weirdest part of it all. The pendulum on antitrust has swung back and

0:51.6

forth pretty wildly over the past few years, and and well, it's about to swing again under Trump and his new appointees.

0:57.9

Tell me getting a sense of these folks and what might be about to happen, I asked Leon Nylen,

1:02.6

an antitrust reporter for Bloomberg News and one of the leading experts on the subject,

1:06.3

to come on the show and help me break it all down.

1:08.9

Now, if you're a decoder listener, you know that the basic frameworks of how antitrust law in the United States work have been more or less

1:14.7

the same since Ronald Reagan took office in 1980, all the way through the Obama presidency and

1:19.9

the First Trump administration. But under President Biden, Federal Trade Commission Chair

1:24.2

Lena Khan and Department of Justice antitrust chief Jonathan Cantor

1:27.7

have taken a bold approach to antitrust that many of us have not really seen in our lifetimes.

1:32.9

And they've been pretty public about it. Cantor has been on Decoder twice in the past year

...

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