Comedian John Oliver decide to wade into theantitrustbattlegroundthis week , and he did n’t hold back any punches .
Oliver devoted 25 minutes of his most late Last hebdomad Tonight show to discuss general Big Tech badness and advocated in favour of a yoke of historicantitrust billscurrently being considered in Congress . The comedian zeroes in on claims made by advocacy groups and low businesses that giants like Google and Meta engage in anti - free-enterprise , ego - preferencing behavior that essentially cements their status as one and only dominators .
During the segment , Oliver occupy bearing at Apple ’s roughly 30 % App Store commission fee ( referred to as the “ Apple Tax ” by critics ) which he tongue-in-cheek draw as “ blood money . ” Oliver then took a stab at Google , which he criticized for “ exploiting its market dominance ” in search . ResearchersestimateGoogle possesses over 90 % of the search market share . Oliver cited research claim two - one-third of all those Google searches never actually result in a exploiter result a associate Google property . Imagine searching Google for a solid food recipe only to be direct to an Alphabet possess YouTube TV . That , Oliver argue , is ego - preferencing in action . “ Google ’s algorithm should n’t determine whether or not someone ’s business is tangible , ” Oliver said , name to businesses like Yelp who’veaccusedGoogle of stealing their cognitive content and argued the tech giant ’s self - preferencing has limited their profile and reach .
Photo:Last Week Tonight
Oliver took the most issue though with Amazon , which has faced fierce pushback for allegedly prioritizing its own in - house trade name of products over small-scale competitors , basically gutting small business firm in the appendage .
“ Basically , it is Amazon ’s vacation spot , they make the rule , and they do seem to win a band of the time , ” Oliver said . “ If they [ Amazon ] are compete with you , you ’re basically drained . ” He added Amazon is essentially the only spot to trade anything on the internet . “ Unless that is you ’re looking to offload some human teeth because then it ’s Craigslist all the way , infant ! ”
The comedian also in short touch on the U.S. government ’s 1984breakupof Bell Systems , which he argues led to a phone number of new innovations like the answering machine and the modem . And while he acknowledge some minuscule reform have get along from both Apple and Google in late years , Oliver state those came only after relentless activist air pressure and numerous suit . Oliver likewise had a bone to clean with Big Tech ’s late statement against new antitrust measures
“ These vizor would snap the door back opened for foundation and prod the net back toward what it was reckon to be from the starting line : A revolutionary tool that expanded global memory access to entropy , ” Oliver tote up .
Votes on Antitrust Bills Could Come This Summer
The section air less than 24 hours before dozens of companies and business joined together to write aletterurging Congress to push through a vote on antitrust legislation aim at determine tech titan ’ abilities to self - preference their own intersection and services . Those signatory include Yelp , Sonos , the American Booksellers Association , and the Institute for Local Self - Reliance , among others .
Oliver ’s segment also earned warm kudos from someconsumeradvocacy groupsandsmaller tech companieswho have pass geezerhood spotlighting Big Tech ’s alleged anticompetitive practices and outsized political power . agitate for the Future , a major proponent for antimonopoly reform , speak favorably of the spell for its clear presentation of the aver harms gestate out by tech companies and for call out popular Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer ’s family line ties with the very firms the novel legislation would prove to target .
“ A crystal cleared explanation of the harm of Big Tech monopoly and self - preferencing , featuring larger-than-life takedowns of Big Tech ’s lies & cringe , ” scrap for the Future Director Evan Greertweeted .
collapse : John Oliver@LastWeekTonightjust gave#antitrustbills#S2992and#S2710the#netneutralitytreatment
It ’s 30 minutes . A crystal absolved explanation of the harm of prominent Tech monopoly and self - preferencing , feature larger-than-life takedowns of Big Tech ’s Trygve Halvden Lie & cringe
— Evan Greer is on Mastodon and Bluesky ( @evan_greer)June 13 , 2022
In an e-mail , Greer pointed to a 2017 Last Week Tonight segment about nett neutrality , which Greer says played an crucial role in galvanize public reinforcement for that yield . It ’s possible , Greer added , that this week ’s episode could light a standardized flicker for antitrust reform .
Still , great Tech firms are pushing intemperately to prevent these bills from seeing the light of day .
older executive at Apple , Google , and Meta have all reportedly spoken with lawmakers to urge them to turn their noses at antimonopoly reform . Apple CEO Tim Cook reportedly even went as far as to personallycontactHouse Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other members of Congress to hear and persuade them to kill the bills .
And while most of the tending around anti - militant behavior in tech tends to focus on Google and Meta , Apple ’s whipping out the great guns as well . In just the first one-quarter this year , Applereportedlyspent $ 2.5 million on lobbying , which marks a 71 % increase from the amount it spent on buttonhole the same prison term last yr .
Oliver , for his part , expressed little sympathy for Big Tech ’s ailment .
“ Ending a monopoly is almost always a skilful thing , ” he said .
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