In the recent development in Big Tech VS World, US Lawmakers approved proposals of banning Facebook from acquiring competitor startups and apple required to allow 3rd Party App Store. The US congressional committee approved some important proposals that is aimed to curb the far-reaching dominance of Big Tech players.
Details
The US lawmakers sent six new bills to the House floor which when approved, will be representing the biggest changes made to the US Antitrust law in years. The bills sent to the floor aims to outlaw Big Tech players that use anti-competitive tactics and abuse its power in gulping down competition altogether.
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What does the proposal have in store for Amazon, Apple, Google and Facebook?
As per the proposals, Big Tech companies, which include Amazon, Apple, Google and Facebook, will see certain bans and requirements imposed on them to facilitate better competition in the market. According to the proposals, Amazon will be banned from having its own e-commerce platform on which independent sellers also sell their products.
Facebook meanwhile, will be banned from acquiring smaller startups that it deems to turn into a future competitor and threat. Similarly, Google will be banned from promoting its video content platform YouTube over the search results over video rivals such as Dailymotion, etc. Lastly, Apple, the 1-trillion-behemoth, will be required to have a third-party app store on its iOS platform.
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Amazon, Apple, Google pushes back
After the news surfaced, Big Tech companies too shared its intent of not budging. According to a CNN report, Amazon claimed that if it’s given the choice to choose between selling its own goods and creating an e-commerce ecosystem for people, it would choose to do the former. Apple on the other hand claimed that if it allows users to download apps from third party platforms, it could lead to security issues.
Search engine giant Google too pushed out a strong worded statement. Mark Isakowitz, VP of Govt Affairs said-
“Consumers and small businesses would be shocked at how these bills would break many of their favorite services. This would all dramatically undermine U.S. technology leadership, damage the way small businesses connect with consumers and raise serious privacy and security concerns.”
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What else do the bills state?
Taking our focus back to the bill, the bill states that large tech companies will be barred from elevating their own products or services on the platform they own. This is in reference to Google promoting YouTube over other competitors. The bill also bans tech players who use their products and platforms to hurt smaller competitors who depend on those platforms.
The bills that were introduced earlier this month are a testimony that lawmakers are concerned about the ever-expansive power of the big tech companies. This is reflected by the fact that the bills have received support from both the houses in USA – the democrat and the republican. While the democrats are concerned about unfair trade practices, republicans fear the reach of online platforms to police online content.
Big Tech VS World: A brief recap
In the past few months, Australian, European and Indian government have taken a firm position to bring back social media platforms into line. European lawmakers have approved investigations that look into business practices exercised by the likes of Apple and google.
Also Read: Australia passes new law that forces Facebook and Google to pay for news
In February, Australia passed a new law which required Facebook and Google to pay for news. The law’s purpose was to curb the dominance of Google and Facebook. India on the other hand, has introduced the IT Rules 2021, which forces big tech companies like Facebook, Twitter & Google to have more accountability, and have a stringent grievance redressal mechanism.
