Week 4: Antitrust

Week 4: Antitrust

https://www.foodbusinessnews.net/articles/14262-antitrust-concerns-emerging-as-an-election-year-issue

      The antitrust investigation into Facebook is due to the way that they are operating. Some of their operations include, “endangered consumer data, reduced the quality of consumers' choices, or increased the price of advertising”, said New York Attorney General Letitia James (Fung). These allegations are important to us, the consumer because these practices could be hindering our freedom of speech if Facebook is reducing the quality of consumer choices. This could be dangerous because Facebook could control a narrative that they want to push on certain subjects by silencing people who oppose their view on the subject. This is kind of like the war on the press in the way that people are being silenced because they have a differing opinion. While Facebook is not throwing people into prison, like the war on the press had happened, they are in the same manner trying to control what the consumer has for choices to read on topics, and these choices might be limited to what Facebook would want so they would want to silence those who have an opinion that might differ from theirs and might be seen by others on Facebook. The article says that “widespread concerns among policymakers that Silicon Valley's biggest players may be harming competition” (Fung), which could be a big deal because that would mean that these big companies, like Facebook, could be hurting competition by silencing their voice when it comes to their marketing or what they are able to say. This can happen because of “Public Accommodation,” which means that private property that is open to the public is treated as public property (Notes), this is why the government has the ability to go after Facebook because they are a private company but they are a public commodity. Therefore the government launched an investigation into the practices of Facebook.

Work Cited

https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/06/tech/facebook-antitrust-investigation/index.html

Fung, Brian. “Facebook Hit with Antitrust Investigation by Eight States and DC.” CNN, Cable News Network, 6 Sept. 2019, www.cnn.com/2019/09/06/tech/facebook-antitrust-investigation/index.html.