Warren’s plan calls for legislation that would feature a new business category for companies with more than $25 billion of global revenue that also “offer to the public an online marketplace, an exchange, or a platform for connecting third parties.” These companies would be called “platform utilities” and be prevented from owning the platform and any of its participants, as well as be required to “meet a standard of fair, reasonable, and nondiscriminatory dealing with users.” They would also not be allowed to share data with other companies.
Warren has been a part of a growing group of Democrats calling for greater regulation and antitrust enforcement of major tech companies.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts on Friday called for the government to break up Facebook, Google and Amazon, offering a plan to re-categorize the companies and reverse some major tech acquisitions.
Warren, who is running for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, has been a part of a growing faction within the party that has called for greater regulation and antitrust enforcement of major tech companies.
“Twenty-five years ago, Facebook, Google, and Amazon didn’t exist. Now they are among the most valuable and well-known companies in the world,” Warren wrote in a post on the blogging platform Medium. “It’s a great story — but also one that highlights why the government must break up monopolies and promote competitive markets.”
Warren’s call also comes as Democrats…
View original post 339 more words
Dr. Bramhall, I’m currently reading your recommended book by Silvia Federici, Witches, Witch-Hunting and Women. It provides me with a new perspective on the birth of capitalism. As the world now faces the existential threats resulting from centuries of capitalist exploitation of human and non-human nature, could the monopolization of the mass communication technologies be the latest means of human labor enslavement in the making?
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m so glad you got the book, Rosaliene. I especially like her critique of formal Marxism for omitting any analysis of our loss of the commons. And I think you’re right about the monopolization of mass communication. The Internet was initially envisioned as a commons shared by everyone but it has been rapidly privatized.
LikeLiked by 2 people
All the social media are part of NSA and via spying. Don’t listen to the bs that they have stopped
LikeLiked by 1 person
Don’t worry, Gloria. I have no illusions there.
LikeLiked by 1 person