Here @pluralistic sums up some of why allowing monopolies (because economists from the Chicago School said monopolies were efficient) to exist is bad and preventable, if the political will to stop them grows.
Here @pluralistic sums up some of why allowing monopolies (because economists from the Chicago School said monopolies were efficient) to exist is bad and preventable, if the political will to stop them grows.
"Auckland University economist Robert MacCulloch has identified the country’s business leaders — particularly those at the helm of large, incumbent firms — as the real drag on New Zealand and the primary “source of our malaise”. His research presents a stunning picture of corporate failure that cannot be blamed on government policy or market headwinds."
#BryceEdwards, 2025
https://theintegrityinstitute.substack.com/p/integrity-briefing-are-business-leaders
"Such poor performance leads MacCulloch to ask a provocative and essential question: how is it possible that these executives are 'so incompetently useless they can’t make a buck even when they have no competition?'. He notes that it is difficult to find another developed country where multiple virtual monopolies are effectively 'run at a loss' in terms of shareholder value ..."
#BryceEdwards, 2025
https://theintegrityinstitute.substack.com/p/integrity-briefing-are-business-leaders
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#Fdroid's statement re. #Google's attack on your freedom to install the apps you want on #Android devices.
#enshittification #bigtech #monopolies #oligopolies #freesoftware
#Fdroid's statement re. #Google's attack on your freedom to install the apps you want on #Android devices.
#enshittification #bigtech #monopolies #oligopolies #freesoftware
While big-upping this channel, another great one about the inherent dangers of monopolies/semi-monopolies & planned obsolescence: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5v8D-alAKE
Some might see this as political, & it partly is, but it's a crucial tech issue at its core.
Also, this is definitely a @pluralistic topic. Cory Doctorow's written about this a *lot* in an essential way for clear understanding of the deep issues.
#RightToRepair #PlannedObsolescence #Veritasium #IndustryCartels #monopolies #monopolists
While big-upping this channel, another great one about the inherent dangers of monopolies/semi-monopolies & planned obsolescence: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5v8D-alAKE
Some might see this as political, & it partly is, but it's a crucial tech issue at its core.
Also, this is definitely a @pluralistic topic. Cory Doctorow's written about this a *lot* in an essential way for clear understanding of the deep issues.
#RightToRepair #PlannedObsolescence #Veritasium #IndustryCartels #monopolies #monopolists
"In Europe, discussions are coalescing around an ambitious idea called EuroStack, an EU-led “digital supply chain” that would give Europe technological sovereignty independent from the US and other countries.
The idea gathered steam a couple of months before Trump’s reelection, when a group of business leaders, European politicians, and technologists—including Meredith Whittaker, the president of Signal, and Audrey Tang, Taiwan’s former minister of digital affairs—met at the European Parliament to discuss “European Digital Independence.” According to Cristina Caffarra, an economist who helped organize the meeting, the takeaway was stark: “US tech giants own not only the services we engage with but also everything below, from chips to connectivity to cables under the sea to compute to cloud. If that infrastructure turns off, we have nowhere to go.”
The feeling of urgency has only grown since Trump retook office. The German and French governments have embraced EuroStack, while major EU aircraft manufacturers and military suppliers like Airbus and Dassault have signed on to a public letter advocating its approach to “sovereign digital infrastructure.” In all the European capitals, the Danish government adviser says, teams of people are calculating what elements should be folded into the effort and what it would cost.
And EuroStack is just one part of the response to enshittification. The European Union is also putting together a joint defense fund to help EU countries buy weapons—but not from the US. The EU’s executive agency, the European Commission, is patching together a network of satellites that could eventually provide Ukraine and Europe with their own home-baked alternative to Starlink."
https://www.wired.com/story/enshittification-of-american-power/
#USA#Trump#BigTech#Enshittification#Monopolies#Oligopolies#DigitalSovereignty#EU#Eurostack#PoliticalEconomy
"In Europe, discussions are coalescing around an ambitious idea called EuroStack, an EU-led “digital supply chain” that would give Europe technological sovereignty independent from the US and other countries.
The idea gathered steam a couple of months before Trump’s reelection, when a group of business leaders, European politicians, and technologists—including Meredith Whittaker, the president of Signal, and Audrey Tang, Taiwan’s former minister of digital affairs—met at the European Parliament to discuss “European Digital Independence.” According to Cristina Caffarra, an economist who helped organize the meeting, the takeaway was stark: “US tech giants own not only the services we engage with but also everything below, from chips to connectivity to cables under the sea to compute to cloud. If that infrastructure turns off, we have nowhere to go.”
The feeling of urgency has only grown since Trump retook office. The German and French governments have embraced EuroStack, while major EU aircraft manufacturers and military suppliers like Airbus and Dassault have signed on to a public letter advocating its approach to “sovereign digital infrastructure.” In all the European capitals, the Danish government adviser says, teams of people are calculating what elements should be folded into the effort and what it would cost.
And EuroStack is just one part of the response to enshittification. The European Union is also putting together a joint defense fund to help EU countries buy weapons—but not from the US. The EU’s executive agency, the European Commission, is patching together a network of satellites that could eventually provide Ukraine and Europe with their own home-baked alternative to Starlink."
https://www.wired.com/story/enshittification-of-american-power/
#USA#Trump#BigTech#Enshittification#Monopolies#Oligopolies#DigitalSovereignty#EU#Eurostack#PoliticalEconomy
🇪🇺 Digital sovereignty can’t be bargained away
By @robin & Cori Crider
About the recent fail by @EUCommission on #EU tech infrastructure, the backbone of our economy and democracy 🔥
"Enforcing the EU’s laws, reclaiming a fair share of the value extracted by #monopolies, breaking them up to unfreeze markets and using the proceeds to invest in our #digitalinfrastructure could be exactly the kind of economic reset #Europe needs." ✊
👉 https://www.politico.eu/article/digital-sovereignty-us-brussels-belgium-trade-talks-tech/
🇪🇺 Digital sovereignty can’t be bargained away
By @robin & Cori Crider
About the recent fail by @EUCommission on #EU tech infrastructure, the backbone of our economy and democracy 🔥
"Enforcing the EU’s laws, reclaiming a fair share of the value extracted by #monopolies, breaking them up to unfreeze markets and using the proceeds to invest in our #digitalinfrastructure could be exactly the kind of economic reset #Europe needs." ✊
👉 https://www.politico.eu/article/digital-sovereignty-us-brussels-belgium-trade-talks-tech/
"Google isn’t satisfied with its monopoly on the questions we search.
Google wants to use AI to monopolize the very answers themselves.
As one Google executive recently explained: “Organizing information is clearly a trillion-dollar opportunity, but a trillion dollars is not cool anymore. What’s cool is a quadrillion dollars.”
Google plans to use AI to consume and replace the open web.
I believe demolishing independent sites like mine was Google’s first step in clearing ground so it has space to rebuild search from the ground up for an “AI-first” future.
Google envisions a future where “Google does the Googling for you,” its AI and ads do the answering – and users never need to leave Google.
Google will just source information from a handful of sources and partner websites that it controls and selects – effectively creating an information cartel.
If Google can use AI to censor a travel website from the web arbitrarily and without opportunity for appeal – it can do the same to any source of information it wants.
And American citizens and Internet users everywhere will be worse off for it.
So while you may not really care about the plight of some random travel website getting censored, everyone should care about the way Google is deploying AI to build a censorship cartel that lets it control the flow of information online.
What follows is a lengthy summary of my experiences and my opinions as an independent publisher trying to survive in a monopolist’s information economy.
To start, let me explain how we got to this point where Google has the power to do this:"
https://travellemming.com/perspectives/ftc-letter-google-censors-indie-publishers-with-ai/
#Google #SearchEngines #AI #AISearch #OpenWeb #Monopolies #Antitrust #Competition #BigTech
