Report an Antitrust Violation
www.ftc.gov
If you have a question or comment about an antitrust issue, submit it to the Bureau of Competition by one of the methods below.

So as I understand it, Google’s using it’s monopoly market position to force web “standards” unilaterally (without an independent/conglomerate web specification standards where Google is only one of many voices) that will disadvantage its competitors and force people to leave its competitors.

I’m not a lawyer, and I’m a fledgling tech guy, but this sounds like abuse of a monopoly. Google which serves 75% of the world’s ads and has 75% of the browser market share seems to want to use its market power to annihilate people’s privacy and control over their web experience.

So we can file a complaint with FTC led by Lina Khan who has been the biggest warrior against abuse by big tech in the US.

https://www.ftc.gov/enforcement/report-antitrust-violation

We can also file a complaint with the DOJ:

https://www.justice.gov/atr/citizen-complaint-center

And there have to be EU, UK, Indian, Chinese, and Japanese organizations that we can file antitrust complaints to.

      • @GiooschiEnglish
        8•1 year ago

        Yeah, and none of them let you keep your existing @gmail.com address. Which means you’ll have to update it everywhere. That’s the massive problem.

        • @[email protected]English
          5•1 year ago

          That’s just a bit of work. Keeping an evil monopoly because of inconvenience that isn’t really a great argument in by book

          • @GiooschiEnglish
            6•1 year ago

            You’re right, but the argument was that it wouldn’t be that disruptive, and that’s not true.

    • gian English
      2•1 year ago

      Losing gmail (which I didn’t even think of…) would be MASSIVELY disruptive. People would literally lose touch with family and friends, companies would go under, etc.

      I am old enough to remember the times the same thing was said about Hotmail and other sites… people will adapt.

      And no, social media sites can’t handle what youtube does. Even ignoring how laughable twitter currently is: at its prime, it STILL couldn’t serve videos reliably. Tiktok and Instagram have very strict limits on video uploads and the rest largely rely on youtube anyway. Yes, some people upload videos to facebook or choose to mirror them, but it is often still youtube links. Same with reddit.

      Not one alone. But work will probably be split between more sites. And actual limitation are just decision that were made and can change.

    • @pyrflieEnglish
      -3•1 year ago

      Anyone who hasn’t planed for this with an account on another service, at the very least like proton, kinda deserves whats coming due to the signs.

      I’m no soothsayer and even I can see that Google is making enemies with governments, China, US, and Europe. You can survive one or two but not all three.

      • @ScaraTeraEnglish
        1•1 year ago

        The world is much larger than just the wealthy nations. Where I’m from, the internet is synonymous with Google, emails with gmail and online video sharing with YouTube.

        Digital literacy is hard to worry about when you are struggling to improve your life. Even outside of harsh situations it’s not okay to expect everyone to literate themselves.

        • @[email protected]English
          2•1 year ago

          People like that need to be educated more than any other and liberating them of that responsibility only harms them, it does not help them.

        • @kavaEnglish
          1•1 year ago

          Nobody is claiming it wouldn’t be disruptive, but the question is if the long term it would be better for society. Monopolies are not good and the longer we allow them to survive, the more ingrained they become.

          Free market capitalism only works well when there is competition. When big companies are so powerful they can just buy up any potential competitors, we’re not in free market capitalism anymore. We’re entering a merger of corporate and state power - teetering slowly towards a “tolerant” fascism. It’s something that desperately needs to be addressed.

        • @[email protected]English
          0•1 year ago

          Digital illiteracy is easy to combat. You just put the person on a different service. As long as it “just works” they’ll be fine.