Technology platforms like Facebook once stated that for the national security of the United States, people should protect, grant, and praise Facebook’s (monopoly) rights. But the past history of these technology giants shows that technology giants cannot defend the interests of the United States, and people should never give this trust to technology companies like Facebook, because technology monopoly is the goal of these technology giants.
This Thursday (August 6th local time), US President Trump signed an executive order banning China-owned video sharing app TikTok from entering the United States on grounds of national security. Prior to this, the House Antitrust Subcommittee held a hearing on the power of large technology companies. At the hearing, the CEOs of Facebook, Amazon, Google, and Apple faced scrutiny by American policymakers and the public for being too powerful and the resulting oppressiveness.
At that hearing, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg repeatedly emphasized the company’s American characteristics and China’s threat to the Internet. He specifically mentioned TikTok as the fastest growing application in the United States. His meaning here is very clear, and it also confirms what he said when he testified before Congress that large technology companies are critical to confronting Chinese platforms like TikTok.
In response to this situation, the most common solution is to get a large American technology company to buy TikTok. Facebook, Amazon, Google and Apple have all been nominated, but Microsoft seems to be at the top of the list. As domestic technology monopolies in the United States turn to use national security topics to counter their critics, the view that large technology companies can protect the United States from China’s influence has risen in the past year.
For example, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg both stated that competition with China was a reason to maintain the US science and technology monopoly.
This view believes that the United States needs large technology companies to form “national champion companies” to compete with China and its national champion companies in the field of technology. Instead of mentioning the word split, these companies and their lobbying forces emphasized that for the safety of the United States, Americans should protect, grant and praise the centralized power that these companies have.
Given Facebook’s role in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, the idea that large technology companies protect Americans from applications that may be used to interfere with elections is ironic.
If this is funny, then the irony does not stop there. The reason why Americans pay such high attention to TikTok now is largely due to Facebook .
A long time ago, there was a video sharing app similar to TikTok called Vine in the United States. Like TikTok, all children share entertainment videos on it. Facebook does not like such competition and uses its monopoly power to stifle competition. As the leaked e-mail shows, Mark Zuckerberg personally pressed the “block button”, he refused Vine’s access to Facebook, and cancelled its ability to access Facebook users.
Strangely, Facebook did not do this to TikTok. In fact, the situation is just the opposite. In the spring and summer of 2018, Facebook was still struggling to enter the Chinese market and tried to open a subsidiary in Hangzhou. At that time, Facebook allowed this Chinese app to place ads on its pages. During this period of time, TikTok ads accounted for 15% to 22% of all advertisements broadcast through Facebook on the IOS platform.
However, in 2019, the situation has changed and Zuckerberg seems to finally realize that he will never enter the Chinese market . In the United States, Facebook claims that its corporate size should be retained as a line of defense against opponents (such as Tiktok). It needs to maintain a large enough volume to innovate. However, there is evidence that Tiktok’s existence is due in part to Facebook’s pursuit of corporate goals, such as expanding into the Chinese market and increasing advertising revenue.
There was Vine before and Tiktok after. These stories clearly show that due to the purpose of technology monopoly, large technology platforms such as Facebook are structurally unable to protect American interests, and people should never believe that they can afford it. This task.
(The author of this article, Lucas Kunce, is the National Security Director of the American Antitrust Organization, the American Economic Liberties Project.)
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