Big Tech’s foes try out “man bites dog” strategy
Skip to main content
  • Home
  • Economy
    • Aviation
    • Bazaar
    • Budget
    • Industry
    • NBR
    • RMG
    • Corporates
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • World+Biz
  • Sports
  • Features
    • Book Review
    • Brands
    • Earth
    • Explorer
    • Fact Check
    • Family
    • Food
    • Game Reviews
    • Good Practices
    • Habitat
    • Humour
    • In Focus
    • Luxury
    • Mode
    • Panorama
    • Pursuit
    • Wealth
    • Wellbeing
    • Wheels
  • Epaper
  • More
    • Subscribe
    • Videos
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • COVID-19
    • Games
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Podcast
    • Quiz
    • Tech
    • Trial By Trivia
    • Magazine
  • বাংলা
The Business Standard

Saturday
January 28, 2023

Sign In
Subscribe
  • Home
  • Economy
    • Aviation
    • Bazaar
    • Budget
    • Industry
    • NBR
    • RMG
    • Corporates
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • World+Biz
  • Sports
  • Features
    • Book Review
    • Brands
    • Earth
    • Explorer
    • Fact Check
    • Family
    • Food
    • Game Reviews
    • Good Practices
    • Habitat
    • Humour
    • In Focus
    • Luxury
    • Mode
    • Panorama
    • Pursuit
    • Wealth
    • Wellbeing
    • Wheels
  • Epaper
  • More
    • Subscribe
    • Videos
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • COVID-19
    • Games
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Podcast
    • Quiz
    • Tech
    • Trial By Trivia
    • Magazine
  • বাংলা
SATURDAY, JANUARY 28, 2023
Big Tech’s foes try out “man bites dog” strategy

Global Economy

Reuters
20 February, 2021, 12:15 pm
Last modified: 20 February, 2021, 12:21 pm

Related News

  • Meta says Trump to be allowed back on Facebook, Instagram
  • Big tech helps big oil spread subtle climate denialism
  • US Justice Dept sues Google over digital advertising dominance
  • Google parent to lay off 12,000 workers in latest blow to tech sector
  • Google vows to cooperate with India antitrust authority after Android decision

Big Tech’s foes try out “man bites dog” strategy

The new proposed US bill would let small media companies bargain collectively with Facebook or Google

Reuters
20 February, 2021, 12:15 pm
Last modified: 20 February, 2021, 12:21 pm
Big Tech’s foes try out “man bites dog” strategy

It's a truism that the real news story isn't the dog biting the man, but vice versa. A proposed US law aimed at helping small media outlets stand up to big technology firms gives new life to the old cliché. The problem is that the market distortions that benefit Big Tech are too entrenched for it to have much effect.

The new bill, reported by Reuters on Friday, would let small media companies bargain collectively with Facebook or Google, the search division of Alphabet, without falling foul of laws that punish collusion. Democratic Representative David Cicilline, one of the sponsors, has proposed a similar bill before. This time, though, technology companies are more politically vulnerable. The siege of the US capitol on Jan. 6 showed the danger of online misinformation, which a well-funded media can help counteract.

A shield like the one the bill would propose is innovative in its application, but not revolutionary. Labor unions already enjoy special treatment under competition rules. And there are two problems. First, the law may help only the very small publications, and collectively they make up just a tiny part of the Big Tech's business. Even if newspapers could bargain en masse, there's no guarantee the extra profit will go to fund investigative local news rather than, say, dividends for private owners.

Facebook, Google could lose bargaining power under upcoming US bill to help news outlets

Moreover, the market distortions run much deeper. For a century or more competition regulators have mostly focused on prices and mergers, allowing companies like Facebook and Alphabet to grow with few checks and balances. The two now have a collective market value of nearly $2.2 trillion. Antitrust watchdogs have only recently turned their attention to the clout they wield.

Australia is engaged in a face-off with Facebook over paying media firms a fair price for news. If an entire country can't push Facebook around, the combined force of America's local newspapers is unlikely to have much chance. A real shift in the balance of power calls for a new approach to the value of information: who has it, how they got it, and how they use it. That means thinking of user data as a precious asset, like money that depositors stow in banks – and focusing on the headline, not the small print.

Analysis / Top News / World+Biz

Facebook / Facebook Inc / google / Google Inc / Big Tech / US tech companies / US Tech Giants / US tech

Comments

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderation decisions are subjective. Published comments are readers’ own views and The Business Standard does not endorse any of the readers’ comments.

Top Stories

  • The Bombay blood type: A rare blood group in urgent need of database
    The Bombay blood type: A rare blood group in urgent need of database
  • Photo: TBS
    TBS Roundtable: What lies ahead in 2023
  • Photo: TBS
    BNP demands govt's immediate resignation as road march in Dhaka begins

MOST VIEWED

  • Photo: Collected
    China differs with IMF on Sri Lanka debt moratorium
  • Oil pump jacks work at sunset near Midland, Texas, US, August 21, 2019. Picture taken August 21, 2019/ Reuters
    US House passes bill limiting drawdowns from strategic oil reserve
  • Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani in a 2009 photo. Photo: Collected
    India's Gautam Adani: Asia's richest man in the eye of a storm
  • Illustration: Itziar Barrio
    Adani faces one of worst billionaire wipeouts with empire under siege
  • A maze of crude oil pipes and valves is pictured during a tour by the Department of Energy at the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in Freeport, Texas, US June 9, 2016. Photo :Reuters
    Oil prices settle lower on stronger supply outlook
  • A Wall Street sign outside the New York Stock Exchange in New York City, New York, U.S., October 2, 2020. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri
    Recession fears pose challenge to energy shares after stellar year

Related News

  • Meta says Trump to be allowed back on Facebook, Instagram
  • Big tech helps big oil spread subtle climate denialism
  • US Justice Dept sues Google over digital advertising dominance
  • Google parent to lay off 12,000 workers in latest blow to tech sector
  • Google vows to cooperate with India antitrust authority after Android decision

Features

Snipe in flight. Photo: Enam Ul Haque

Baikka Beel: 'A world where snipe work late'

34m | Panorama
Photo: Noor-A-Alam

Pet cafes: Where love for food and animals cohabit

2h | Food
Illustration: TBS

How MFS is turbocharging national economy

5h | Thoughts
Now is the time to focus on FDI composition

Now is the time to focus on FDI composition

7h | Panorama

More Videos from TBS

Gold covered mummy discovered in Egypt

Gold covered mummy discovered in Egypt

Now | TBS World
Kajol’s road paintings bring change in Gafargaon

Kajol’s road paintings bring change in Gafargaon

1d | TBS Stories
Carew & Company witnessed a remarkable growth

Carew & Company witnessed a remarkable growth

1d | TBS Stories
Gavi may have to leave Camp Nou

Gavi may have to leave Camp Nou

18h | TBS SPORTS

Most Read

1
Picture: Collected
Bangladesh

US Embassy condemns recent incidents of visa fraud

2
Four top bankers arrested in DSA case filed by S Alam group 
Bangladesh

Four top bankers arrested in DSA case filed by S Alam group 

3
Illustration: TBS
Banking

16 banks at risk of capital shortfall if top 3 borrowers default

4
Photo: Collected
Splash

Hansal Mehta responds as Twitter user calls him 'shameless' for making Faraaz

5
A frozen Beyond Burger plant-based patty. Photographer: AKIRA for Bloomberg Businessweek
Bloomberg Special

Fake meat was supposed to save the world. It became just another fad

6
Representational Image
Banking

Cash-strapped Islami, Al-Arafah and National turn to Sonali Bank for costly fund

EMAIL US
contact@tbsnews.net
FOLLOW US
WHATSAPP
+880 1847416158
The Business Standard
  • About Us
  • Contact us
  • Sitemap
  • Privacy Policy
  • Comment Policy
Copyright © 2023
The Business Standard All rights reserved
Technical Partner: RSI Lab

Contact Us

The Business Standard

Main Office -4/A, Eskaton Garden, Dhaka- 1000

Phone: +8801847 416158 - 59

Send Opinion articles to - oped.tbs@gmail.com

For advertisement- sales@tbsnews.net