Will Big Tech Be Disciplined? Sure, You Have to Start Work Before 11 am
May 12, 2022
Some believe that monopolies are detrimental to free enterprise and the mixed economy that thrives in the United States. Unfortunately, most of the technology developments in the country are controlled by several large companies: Amazon, Google, Facebook, Apple, and Microsoft. According to US law, these companies may be forced to break up. Greenwald shares a story of how breaking up the large tech companies could be harmful to US security: “Former Intelligence Officials, Citing Russia, Say Big Tech Monopoly Power Is Vital To National Security.”
A group of former national security and intelligence officials released a jointly signed letter that current legislative attempts to hinder High Tech monopolies will harm US safety. They argued in their letter that centralized censorship power is important to the US’s foreign policy. The argument was justified by the current war in Ukraine. These claims are dubious:
“While one of their central claims is that Big Tech monopoly power is necessary to combat (i.e., censor) “foreign disinformation,” several of these officials are themselves leading disinformation agents: many were the same former intelligence officials who signed the now-infamous-and-debunked pre-election letter fraudulently claiming that the authentic Hunter Biden emails had the “hallmarks” of Russia disinformation (former Obama Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former Obama CIA Director Michael Morrell, former Obama CIA/Pentagon chief Leon Panetta). Others who signed this new letter have strong financial ties to the Big Tech corporations whose power they are defending in the name of national security (Morrell, Panetta, former Bush National Security Adviser Fran Townsend).”
It should not come as a surprise that these former officials have ties to Big Tech and want to preserve the monopolies so they benefit. Big Tech companies support politicians who in turn support legislation favorable to them. It is a typical quid pro quo situation. What makes the situation hypocritical is that politicians profess they want to dismantle Big Tech monopolies but vote the opposite.
Are Big Tech monopolies good? It depends on one’s point of view.
Whitney Grace, May 12, 2022
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