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17 votes
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Will the Apple antitrust case affect your phone’s security?
15 votes -
Apple has kept an illegal monopoly over smartphones in US, Justice Department says in antitrust suit
95 votes -
United States Justice Department report finds ‘cascading failures’ and ‘no urgency’ during Uvalde, Texas, shooting
54 votes -
US judge blocks JetBlue-Spirit merger after DOJ’s antitrust challenge
12 votes -
Cummins pickup truck engines systematically tricked US air pollution controls, feds say
38 votes -
US real estate agents compensation challenged in suit from Joe Biden Department of Justice
12 votes -
Apple reaches $25M settlement with the DOJ for discriminating against US residents during hiring
27 votes -
US Senator calls for Department of Justice action against Philips for keeping CPAP machine complaints secret
20 votes -
US Justice Department sues eBay over unlawful sales of pesticides, other products
11 votes -
Google US antitrust trial - judge ordered trial exhibits removed from the web - the Verge responds by publishing them
24 votes -
Economist, business professor, digital economy expert Shane Greenstein discusses the US Department of Justice vs Google antitrust case
4 votes -
Google goes to trial in biggest US challenge to tech power in decades
32 votes -
'Project 2025' and the 'Mandate for Leadership'; the conservative plan for America
56 votes -
Permanent US injunction and $650,000 civil penalty imposed on Experian Consumer Services for allegedly sending commercial emails
15 votes -
Was Merrick Garland’s approach correct all along?
20 votes -
Hunter Biden will plead guilty in a deal that likely avoids time behind bars in a tax and gun case
43 votes -
US Justice Department report slams Minneapolis Police Department over years of racism, excessive force
33 votes -
US Department of Justice announces charges against Donald Trump
118 votes -
Jan. 6 panel to vote on urging US Department of Justice to prosecute Trump on at least three criminal charges
10 votes -
US Justice Department said to investigate Ticketmaster’s parent company
11 votes -
The execs behind the MoviePass debacle are now facing criminal charges
6 votes -
Justice Department announces takedown of nationwide catalytic converter theft ring
12 votes -
Former US President Donald Trump says FBI conducting search of Mar-a-Lago estate
32 votes -
Winning the war on ransomware - The DOJ’s task force is changing the landscape around hackers, but will it be enough?
4 votes -
Sony’s deal for anime platform Crunchyroll faces uncertainty from US DOJ
8 votes -
Nikola founder Trevor Milton charged with securities fraud and wire fraud for making false and misleading claims about the status of the US company's electric trucks and technology
12 votes -
In leak investigation, tech giants are caught between courts and customers
9 votes -
US Department of Justice recovers $2.3 million worth of Bitcoin that Colonial Pipeline paid to ransomware extortionists
17 votes -
He thought he was helping North Koreans escape. Now he might end up in jail.
12 votes -
Federal court authorizes IRS John Doe summons seeking identities of US taxpayers who conducted at least $20,000 in cryptocurrency transactions during the years 2016 to 2020
15 votes -
The Great Deplatforming: An alternate explanation for the Parler, et al, shutdowns
A common current narrative is that tech monopolists are suddenly acting of their own initiative and in concert to deplatform the burgeoning fascist insurgent movement within the US. I approve the...
A common current narrative is that tech monopolists are suddenly acting of their own initiative and in concert to deplatform the burgeoning fascist insurgent movement within the US. I approve the deplatforming strongly, though I suspect an alternative significant motivating and coordfinating factor.
An example of the "tech monopoly abuse" narrative is Glenn Greenwald's more than slightly unhinged "How Silicon Valley, in a Show of Monopolistic Force, Destroyed Parler"
Greenwald's argument hinges on emotion, insinuation, invective, a completely unfounded premise, an absolute absence of evidence, and no consideration of alternative explanations: an overwhelmingly plausible ongoing law enforcement and national security operation, likely under sealed or classified indictments or warrants, in the face of ongoing deadly sedition lead by the President of the United States himself, including against the person of his own vice president and credible threats against the President-Elect and Inauguration.
Such an legal action is, of course, extraordinarily difficult to prove, and I cannot prove it. A critical clue for me, however, is the defection not just of Apple, Google, Amazon, Facebook, Stripe, and other tech firms, but of Parler's legal counsel, who would have to be an exceptionally stealth-mode startup to fit Greenwald's, or other's, "it's the tech monopolists" narrative. I've tempered my degree of assurance and language ("plausible" rather than "probable"). Time will tell. But a keen and critical mind such as Grenwald's should at least be weighing the possibility. He instead seems bent only on piking old sworn enemies, with less evidence or coherence than I offer.
This is the crux of Greenwald's argument. It's all he's got:
On Thursday, Parler was the most popular app in the United States. By Monday, three of the four Silicon Valley monopolies united to destroy it.
I'm no friend of the tech monopolists myself. The power demonstrated here does concern me, greatly. I've long railed against Google, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, and Apple, among other tech monopolists. Largely because as monopolies they are power loci acting through their occupation of a common resource, outside common control, and not serving the common weal. Hell: Facebook, Google (YouTube), Reddit, and Twitter played a massive role in creating the current fascist insurrection in the US, along with even more enthusiastic aid and comfort from traditional media, across the spectrum. Damage that will take decades to repair, if ever.
But, if my hypothesis is correct, the alternative explanation would be the opposite of this: the state asserting power over and through monopolies in the common interest, in support of democratic principles, for the common weal. And that I can support.
I don't know that this is the case. I find it curious that I seem to be the only voice suggesting it. Time should tell.
And after this is over, yes, Silicon Valley, in its metonymic sense standing for the US and global tech industry, has to face its monopoly problem, its free speech problem (in both sincere and insincere senses), its surveillance problem (capitalist, state, criminal, rogue actor), its censorship problem, its propaganda problem (mass and computational), its targeted manipulation adtech problem, its trust problem, its identity problem, its truth and disinformation problems, its tax avoidance problem, its political influence problem.
Virtually all of which are inherent aspects of monopoly: "Propaganda, censorship, and surveillance are all attributes of monopoly" https://joindiaspora.com/posts/7bfcf170eefc013863fa002590d8e506
HN discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24771470But, speaking as a space alien cat myself, Greenwald is so far off base here he's exited the Galaxy.
Update: 2h30m after posting, NPR have mentioned sealed indictments and speculated on whether the President might be charged, in special coverage.
Late edits: 2022-1-23 Typos: s/inconcert/in concert/; s/would bet he/would be the/;
19 votes -
Visa and Plaid abandon merger after US Justice Department Antitrust Division’s suit to block
10 votes -
Boeing charged and agrees to pay $2.5 billion for 737 MAX fraud conspiracy
16 votes -
Google sued by US Department of Justice in antitrust case over search dominance
26 votes -
John McAfee has been arrested in Spain and is facing extradition
22 votes -
Six former eBay executives and employees charged with aggressive cyberstalking campaign targeting a couple who published an online newsletter critical of the company
23 votes -
Former Chief Security Officer for Uber charged with obstruction of justice for attempted cover-up of 2016 hack that compromised data from millions of users and drivers
9 votes -
US Justice Department says Yale discriminates against Asian, white applicants
10 votes -
US Department of Justice’s review of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act and proposals for reform
5 votes -
How Trump corrupts everyone around him; For most of Trump’s aides, the only good move is not to play
6 votes -
US DOJ urges High Court to shield companies from slave labor suits citing 230 year old tort statute
4 votes -
Here’s what an antitrust case against Google might look like: Two DOJ veterans lay out a roadmap for cracking down on the company’s digital advertising juggernaut
4 votes -
How an AT&T lawyer helped monopolize cheerleading and induce US drug shortages
5 votes -
Department of Justice announces a 16-count superseding indictment against Huawei, four subsidiaries, and CFO Wanzhou Meng that includes charges of racketeering and conspiracy to steal trade secrets
9 votes -
Four Chinese military personnel charged for Equifax hack
10 votes -
Social media influencer sentenced to fourteen years in federal prison after plotting to hijack internet domain at gunpoint
19 votes -
Sweden's telecoms giant Ericsson has agreed to pay more than $1bn to resolve allegations of bribery, the US Department of Justice has announced
4 votes -
Virgil Griffith, research scientist at the Ethereum Foundation, has been arrested for advising North Korea on how to use cryptocurrency to evade sanctions
23 votes -
South Korean national and 337 others arrested and charged worldwide in the takedown of Welcome To Video, the largest darknet child pornography website
19 votes