Egg On Face Of Facebook, Again.
Presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren recently made a point, and then proved that point with the “help” of Facebook. The Massachusetts Senator posted an ad calling for the “break up” of tech giants Facebook, Google and Amazon. The video advertisement was removed by Facebook. Their reasoning for the removal was that the ad was in breach of Facebook’s advertising and copyright policy (the Facebook logo was used in the ad). The removal was reversed by Facebook based on a stated policy of wanting to allow a “robust debate”. The ad wasn’t expensive. It was only $100, but proved in the end to make an invaluable point.
The ensuing bru-ha-ha was worth many times the original sum by bringing more attention and focus to the very issue the ad was meant to highlight:
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The Democrat Senator served as Barack Obama’s Director of Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. She’s also an aggressive opponent of “big banks” and unlawful practices committed by Wall Street. Warren’s argument was contextualized by antitrust law violations by Microsoft in the 90’s. Warren also explained how these laws lead to the opportunity for websites and tech companies to flourish. Yet, these (aforementioned) tech giants aren’t playing by the rules.
Opposing Monopolists: a rising trend among Democrats
Warren acknowledged the invaluable place that these companies play in our lives, during her speech at SXSW. She also affirmed that they need to be “broken up” in order to promote innovation.
“Facebook, Amazon, and Google. We all use them. But in their rise to power, they’ve bulldozed competition, used our private information for profit, and tilted the playing field in their favor.
It’s time to break up these big companies so they don’t have so much power over everyone else.
Presidential Candidate Elizabeth Warren
The Senator isn’t the only high profile Democrat taking big tech companies to task, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was a voice of opposition in the recent Amazon HQ to Queens deal.
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