Platformonomics TGIF is a weekly roll-up of links, comments on those links, and perhaps a little too much tugging on my favorite threads.
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I’m forced to choose between Elon and the EU! Fortunately this case is an easy decision.
It is a coin flip whether we have an installment next week as it is still summer.
News
EU Insanity: EU Goes Too Far, Even for EU
Failed French “tech” executive turned Superpower of Cheese busybody and self-appointed global hall monitor Thierry Breton sent Elon a threatening letter prior to Elon’s interview of Trump. Anonymous EU functionaries quickly denounced Breton as “an attention-seeking -politician in search of his next big job”. This polity of anonymity did not further elaborate on whether attention-seeking politicians are a good foundation for their treasured regulatory regime.
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EU Tweets While Ukraine Burns, Move Fast and Regulate Things: Ooops!, EU Insanity: AI Regulatory Suicide, EU Insanity: Mistral Edition, Move Fast and Regulate Things (You Don’t Understand), The EU Will Continue to Fiddle While Rome Burns, When “Move Fast and Regulate Things” Breaks Down, AI Regulation: Move Fast and Regulate Things
Antitrust Incoherence: Breaking Up Google #monopolist
Tagging Google as a monopolist is easy. Finding a remedy that is pro-consumer and doesn’t just strengthen other as-yet-untagged Big Tech companies is much harder. Hipster Antitrust, with its rallying cry of “Break Them Up!”, struggles with policy prescriptions beyond what fits in a Tweet.
Despite zero concerns about the tying of Google’s monopoly asset to their browser during the trial, I am glad to see at least in the remedies phase discussion has finally turned to Chrome. But I may have unrealistically high expectations for consistency in antitrust.
If the Justice Department pushes ahead with a breakup plan, the most likely units for divestment are the Android operating system and Google’s web browser Chrome, said the people. Officials are also looking at trying to force a possible sale of AdWords, the platform the company uses to sell text advertising, one of the people said.
Beyond seeming punitive, it is not clear how those proposed remedies impact Google’s search monopoly. And asking competitors to define remedies is not a great way to do antitrust (see also the European Union).
These kind of legal headlines, the associated uncertainty, coming amidst broad threats to the franchise business model are not good for employee morale. It certainly was a drag when Microsoft was going through a similar period. But their former CEO tells us, contrary to any misconceptions he might have inadvertently seeded, Google employees are in fact focused and working hard.
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Antitrust Incoherence: Google Verdict,
Antitrust Incoherence: Competitive Harassment Edition, Antitrust Incoherence: Don’t Forget Microsoft, Antitrust Incoherence: Isn’t Market Division Illegal?, Antitrust Incoherence: Roomba Aftermath Edition, Antitrust Incoherence: Apple Edition, Antitrust Incoherence: Spotify Edition, Antitrust Incoherence: Roomba Edition, The Incoherence Doctrine: The FTC Strikes Again, A New Antitrust Doctrine, The DOJ Play at Home Game
Software Migration Alerts: Jaggaer, WS02
When private equity rolls up, you want to roll out.
Twitter ’95
Time travel meets Twitter, courtesy of generative AI.