President Trump warns Google, Facebook, and Twitter that these tech titans now tread on troublesome territory.

Daphne Basel

2018-08-25 12:33:00 Sat ET

President Trump warns Google, Facebook, and Twitter that these tech titans now tread on troublesome territory. Specifically, Trump accuses Google of rigging web search results for Trump news stories in the form of partisan biases against him. Anecdotal evidence suggests that Google tends to present more aggressive left-wing news stories from CNN, CNBC, Bloomberg, TIME, Reuters, Washington Post, New York Times, and so forth (but not from right-wing outlets such as Fox, Forbes, Wall Street Journal, and National Review). As Google now controls about 90% of U.S. Internet search traffic, this search engine has become substantially close to a tech monopoly. Google's current online search market dominance may cause anti-competitive ripple effects on several other search engines such as Bing, Baidu, and Yahoo. In recent times, several tech observers and commentators predict that Google may become the next Microsoft in antitrust lawsuits.

Facebook CEO Zuckerberg testifies and survives the key U.S. congressional Q&A ordeal in April 2018, but now the social media platform experiences sharp share price and profit declines in August 2018.

These platform orchestrators have become so powerful and influential nowadays that the Trump administration either has to break up these tech titans or needs to heavily regulate them.

In the former case, the parent company Alphabet may spin off its most profitable subsidiary Google to deflect draconian regulatory fines and penalties. In fact, the European Union imposes a punitive fine on Google's tax avoidance, but this fine amounts to about its one-off one-month average net profit in Europe.

In the latter case, the Trump administration may regulate Google, Facebook, and Twitter as social media firms or Internet publishers that specialize in online content curation. The heavy hand can come in the form of new regulatory standards for attempting to deter fake news, partisan biases, and even key risks of exposure to foreign interference.

However, raising the bar inadvertently erects barriers to entry and then further reinforces their technological dominance. The law of inadvertent consequences counsels caution in the midst of substantial economic policy uncertainty under the Trump administration.

 


If any of our AYA Analytica financial health memos (FHM), blog posts, ebooks, newsletters, and notifications etc, or any other form of online content curation, involves potential copyright concerns, please feel free to contact us at service@ayafintech.network so that we can remove relevant content in response to any such request within a reasonable time frame.

Blog+More

President Trump nominates Jerome Powell to be the new Federal Reserve chairman.

Fiona Sydney

2017-10-03 18:39:00 Tuesday ET

President Trump nominates Jerome Powell to be the new Federal Reserve chairman.

President Trump has nominated Jerome Powell to run the Federal Reserve once Fed Chair Janet Yellen's current term expires in February 2018. Trump's

+See More

Apple adds fresh features to its new iPad Pro and MacBook Air in addition to its prior suite of iPhones.

Joseph Corr

2018-11-03 11:36:00 Saturday ET

Apple adds fresh features to its new iPad Pro and MacBook Air in addition to its prior suite of iPhones.

Apple adds fresh features to its new iPad Pro and MacBook Air in addition to its prior suite of iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, and iPhone XR back in September 20

+See More

Modern themes and insights in behavioral finance (Part 1)

Laura Hermes

2022-02-05 09:26:00 Saturday ET

Modern themes and insights in behavioral finance (Part 1)

Modern themes and insights in behavioral finance   Shiller, R.J. (2003). From efficient markets theory to behavioral finance. Journal of Economi

+See More

Higher public debt levels, interest rate hikes, and subpar Chinese economic growth rates are the major risks to the world economy.

Daphne Basel

2019-01-23 11:32:00 Wednesday ET

Higher public debt levels, interest rate hikes, and subpar Chinese economic growth rates are the major risks to the world economy.

Higher public debt levels, global interest rate hikes, and subpar Chinese economic growth rates are the major risks to the world economy from 2019 to 2020.

+See More

U.S. senators urge the Trump administration to prevent the IMF from bailing out several countries that face predatory Chinese loans.

Chanel Holden

2018-02-01 07:38:00 Thursday ET

U.S. senators urge the Trump administration to prevent the IMF from bailing out several countries that face predatory Chinese loans.

U.S. senators urge the Trump administration with a bipartisan proposal to prevent the International Monetary Fund (IMF) from bailing out several countries t

+See More

The Trump fiscal trifecta of lower income taxation, new infrastructure, and deregulation has yet to run its natural course.

Becky Berkman

2017-04-25 06:35:00 Tuesday ET

The Trump fiscal trifecta of lower income taxation, new infrastructure, and deregulation has yet to run its natural course.

This nice and clear infographic visualization helps us better decipher the main memes and themes of President Donald Trump's first 100 days in office.

+See More