Facebook says we don’t like this, and Twitter says we don’t like attacks on Hunter Biden. Once you act as a publisher, you’re a publisher. You can be sued because you’re a publisher. They can’t be platforms and at the same time act like publishers. They should have to check a box: If you’re going to be a platform, no censorship. If you’re not going to be a platform, then you don’t get immunity. But you can’t both have censorship and get immunity at the same time. That’s just not fair and not right.
Alan Dershowitz
Harvard Law School professor emeritus
Alphabet acquisitions:
- Nest (thermostats, security cams), acquisition price: $3.2 billion
- DoubleClick (ad management), now Google marketing platform, acquisition price: $3.1 billion
- Looker (business intel, analytics), acquisition price: $2.6 billion
- YouTube (video sharing), acquisition price: $1.65 billion
- Waze (mobile navigation), acquisition price: $966 million
- CEO: Sundar Pichai
- Value: $1.21 trillion
- Revenue: $171.7 billion
- CEO salary: $600 million
- June 2019: Justice Dept. and 11 state AGs have file antitrust lawsuit against Google alleging that the search giant is unlawfully maintaining monopolies to undermine market rivals.
- CEO: Mark Zuckerberg
- Value: $792 billion
- Revenue: $78.98 billion
- CEO salary: $105 billion
- December 2020: The Justice Dept., FTC and 48 state AGs file lawsuits claiming that Facebook implemented an “acquire, copy or kill” strategy to illegally buy rivals—Instagram in 2012 and What’sApp in 2015—to assure its social media dominance.
Apple
- CEO: Tim Cook
- Value: $2.11 trillion
- Revenue: $274.52 billion
- CEO salary: $1 billion
- June 2019: Justice Department investigated Apple’s app store after app developers accused the tech giant of introducing new products very similar to their pre-existing apps, then ousting their apps.
Amazon
- CEO: Jeff Bezos
- Value: $1.56 trillion
- Revenue: $347.95 billion
- CEO salary: $182 billion
- August 2020: The FTC opened an antitrust probe into Amazon’s online marketplace following claims that it secretly used data on third-party sellers and start-ups to launch competing products.
Controlling the message, it works in China
The $1 trillion Google empire has one goal: data collection for the purpose of mapping your life.
Some animals are more equal
Google announced that it will continue to censor content on its YouTube channel regarding election corruption. The once free internet has a self- appointed gatekeeper.
$740B National Defense (NDAA) bill passed the Senate, 84-13
Yet did not repeal Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which protects tech from liability for content that appears on their platform. Such liability is applied to media entities that choose content, as tech does.
Tech titans may have finally forced the hand of bureaucrats.
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are taking action to unravel the immense power that the biggest tech companies wield over how people live, work, shop and receive information. Are they too late?
Lest we forget
Business opportunity—in commercial real estate and beyond—is set by governance. The U.S. has always set the bar on prosperity, derived from free markets and the sanctity of law.
The Fourth Estate, or the free press, provides checks and balances on government protecting against corruption, fraud and misdeeds. Free channels of communication protect this freedom for all.
