Facebook is being sued for antitrust violations and AGs in most of the states have signed on. According to the Chicago Tribune, “Lawmakers of both major parties are also calling for stronger oversight of Facebook and other tech industry giants. They argue that the companies’ massive market power is out of control, crushing smaller competitors and endangering consumer privacy and choice. Facebook insists that its services provide useful benefits for users and that complaints about its power are misguided… The FTC and the Justice Department reportedly have been investigating Amazon and Apple, respectively…and Justice Department prosecutors are pursuing a separate antitrust case against Google, one that mirrors its case against Microsoft 20 years ago. Microsoft lost that one, although it escaped a breakup when an appellate court disagreed with the trial judge’s order.”

Om Malik published this piece (My advice to the attorney generals: It’s not about Zuck) and we agree. His point: the Microsoft case didn’t help much in reining in the company. “I would argue that they are doing what they have always done – using their market size as a moat and expanding into new markets. We don’t realize it just yet. Today, they control two major professional networks that will have as big, if not more, significant impact on society in the future — GitHub and LinkedIn…

“My view is that it is okay for these companies to continue and buy younger companies, but they should be restricted to only buying companies that enhance their core and not allowed to buy into new markets. For example, Facebook should not have been allowed to buy Instagram or WhatsApp… In a previous article for The New Yorker, I pointed out, “This loop of algorithms, infrastructure, and data is potent. Add what are called network effects to the mix, and you start to see virtual monopolies emerge almost overnight…”When it comes to Facebook, I wrote, “The more we use it, the more data we give the company, and the more it is able to control where we turn our attention.” Facebook, as a result, “thanks to this loop of algorithms, infrastructure, money, and data, is a winner-takes-all company.

“The world now moves at a network scale…It seems important to note that things in the industry are speeding up. The government watchdogs need to be mindful that the time it takes from being an upstart to a giant is getting shorter and shorter. Google was roughly 21 years. Facebook was 15 years…. It took newly-public DoorDash just seven years from being four guys at Stanford University to become a $68 billion company with over fifty percent of the food delivery market. And the future is going to be even faster because the network effects make everything grow much faster.”

We may be told about the importance of a free and open internet, but is it currently that?  So-called Net Neutrality did much to expand the power, wealth and reach of the tech cabal, who argued that, without it, the telcos, ISPs and big players like Comcast would own and choke the ‘last mile.’ Instead, innovation and IPOs came to pretty much a grinding halt. As for that last mile, the cabal may not charge a premium, but they do engage in rampant dictatorial censorship, meaning deplatforming people whose views are not in lockstep with their own.

Which poses a larger threat to society?

What to speak of the unbridled surveillance they’ve been practicing for some time now, which must also be addressed.

Let’s also not forget Amazon’s purchase of the Washington Post – which was way outside of its lane/silo – that gave the company a powerful voice in the public arena. They also own Twitch and made an investment in Business Insider as well, which the publication rarely mentions when covering Amazon, always with a positive spin.

Silos. Facebook is a social network: neither Facebook-owned Instagram nor Whatsapp are integrated into the platform, so they’re outside the silo and Facebook must divest itself of (at least) those two platforms. Amazon is a retailer, which makes Twitch, its media properties and even AWS outside of its core competency. Gone. For starters.

And we have something of a definable approach to antitrust in the age of technology. Without this or a similar fresh approach and redefinition, the internet will continue to be more and more of what it has been becoming for some time now: a one-way street. With all roads leading us further and further down the rabbit hole. Onward and forward.