The monopoly case against Facebook
Business Daily
BBC
4.4 • 796 Ratings
🗓️ 17 December 2020
⏱️ 18 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Why US regulators want to break up the social media giant. The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and dozens of US states are arguing that Facebook is a monopoly that harms consumers. Ed Butler speaks to tech and anti-trust researcher Dina Srinivasan about why data privacy is at the centre of the arguments over Facebook's monopoly power. Former FTC chairman Bill Kovacic explains why breaking up the social media giant is still a distant possibility. And the BBC's technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones discusses the rising anti-tech sentiment among both US and European regulators.
(Photo: Facebook, Whatsapp and Instagram logos. Credit: Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello there, I'm Ed Butler and welcome to Business Daily from the BBC. |
| 0:06.8 | Today, the US and Europe United in getting tough on tech giants like Facebook. |
| 0:12.8 | This is just a very classic monopoly power antitrust story when it comes to a company being too |
| 0:20.3 | powerful such that it can increase price or decrease |
| 0:23.8 | quality. New regulations proposed, but also legal moves, meaning that the social network could |
| 0:29.6 | eventually be broken up. If a gatekeeper breaks the rules, we can impose fines. If it's done |
| 0:35.5 | several times, we can also impose structural remedies, divestiture, |
| 0:40.5 | that sort of things. Is it time to cut Facebook down to size? That's Business Daily from the BBC. |
| 0:49.1 | By using its vast troves of data and money, Facebook has squashed or hindered what the company perceived as potential threats. |
| 0:59.8 | They've reduced choices for consumers. |
| 1:03.3 | They stifled innovation. |
| 1:05.8 | And they degraded privacy protections for millions of Americans. |
| 1:09.0 | The New York Attorney General, Leticia James, there, presenting one part of a multi-pronged |
| 1:14.6 | indictment against the mighty social network last week. |
| 1:18.1 | Federal regulators and dozens of other US states are also taking part. |
| 1:21.9 | It comes just weeks after a similar case was presented against Google. |
| 1:25.8 | And an aggressive Democrat-authored congressional report |
| 1:29.5 | recommended the dismantling of these and other tech giants. |
| 1:33.5 | Today, we're exploring precisely those legal arguments |
| 1:36.9 | and asking what they may mean for big tech. |
| 1:39.9 | But this is complicated, so let's start with the specifics, |
| 1:43.1 | an antitrust or anti-competition claim |
... |
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