The documents were published on Tuesday and they have since then detailed how the world’s tech giants should be further investigated while pushing for enhanced antitrust legislation to occur by this year.
The paperwork has been obtained by the country’s Judiciary Committee which just managed to wrap up an entire comprehensive investigation. This was related to a theme of anticompetitive tactics used by numerous companies such as Apple, Meta, Google, and Amazon. While the investigation was completed by 2020, these new documents that arose in the form of emails, letters, and some reports have really raised more questions in regulators’ minds.
This is being called out as the newest type of evidence available that supports calls for greater advancements and strict rules to avoid such behavior from taking place in the tech world. Meanwhile, one member of the anti-trust committee even went as far as stating how the time had come for Congress to step in.
To be more specific, these documents proved how firms like Google and even Amazon tried to force various sellers and producers of smart devices to come forward and favor products belonging to them.
There are some details about a conversation from a Google executive raising eyebrows about a new service from Samsung which could serve as a stark competitor to Google’s ‘core search’. Meanwhile, there are some mentions of Amazon executives arguing over whether they could restrict some brands from advertising across their websites.
You’ll also find conversations by Google trying to consider the competition provided by Amazon’s voice assistants while another memo directed at Mark Zuckerberg spoke about how Facebook was being co-dominated by Instagram and WhatsApp.
The timings of these documents are pretty interesting. They are being published when a final report of the investigative committee came into the picture and how the competition had been outlined as a growing concern.
So many lawmakers feel that there’s a definite lack of competition as far as the tech industry is concerned. And that is what gives rise to poor product quality over a certain span of time. Also, no Republicans were seen signing the document and that, in turn, indicates how Democrats would be having some huge problems with the passing of anti-trust reforms.
We feel such moves can provide substantial evidence for a further push for bills that actually eliminate tech firms from offering favoritism to their own good and services.
As one top Rep. mentioned, companies as big as Google, Apple, Amazon, and Meta are just incredibly powerful to care about people. Instead, they’re more concerned about their profits and hence would put the latter over the former any day.
Whether the publicizing of such internal memos can actually make a difference or not, well, only time can tell.
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by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World
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