The Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Competition announced the creation of a task force dedicated to monitoring competition in U.S. technology markets, investigating any potential anticompetitive conduct in those markets, and taking enforcement actions when warranted.
This is music to my ears, but only time will tell if this new task force has any teeth. The current US administration is held together by string and spit and barely able to even stumble out the door in the morning, so one has to wonder how effective any FTC actions can even be.
If the FCC was under different control I would say this is good news. Seeing how some have an ax to grind, probably not.
FTC, not FCC. Two different organisations.
xero1,
That’s a very good point. Clearly the concentration of power in tech is troubling, but the true motives of a task force need to be scrutinized since some members of the current administration are prone to weaponizing the executive branch for political ends.
Don’t believe everything you see in the media about the administration. Hell, disbelief by default will get you 90% of the way there. They’re just butthurt their team lost.
tidux,
Sure there’s bias. There are smart people who lean democratic and others who lean republican, and that’s fine. Some even have respect across the isle, like McCain did, because they have integrity, which isn’t partisan. But let’s not kid ourselves about the current US administration. The outright lies, divisiveness and hypocrisy coming from within are especially ugly. Republicans would most certainly call it out if such behavior came from a democratic president. Alas, there’s a lot of people who always defend the “home team” regardless of bad traits. That’s true of both parties.
For the record though, I think political parties are bad and I don’t affiliate with either republicans or democrats because if I were one or the other I worry that I’d begin compromising on what I actually think in order to align with the party. I see what that’s done to the country and I think it’s harmful overall. I wish more people would be independent thinkers to make up their own minds on issues rather than fitting everything through the lens of political parties.
Could you please not post comments that are solely political and off-topic? Thanks…
Lior Leser of Youtuber Law is working on an FTC complaint regarding Paypal/Patreon/Visa/Mastercard at the moment. I wonder if this is somewhat of a response (apparently FTC tends to respond to community concerns). From his discussion on the topic though, it appears the FTC can operate somewhat independently of the administration, so it may be that it achieves something while the legislature and elected executive fall apart.