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Big tech and antitrust
大型科技企業與反壟斷
Battle commences
戰爭打響
A formidable alliance takes on Facebook. Investors don’t seem to care
一個強大的聯盟與Facebook展開了較量。但投資者似乎不以為意。
Letitia James, New York’s attorney-general, couldn’t be blunter in describing the antitrust case lodged on December 9th against the world’s biggest social network. “By using its vast troves of data and money Facebook has squashed or hindered what the company perceived as potential threats. They’ve reduced choices for consumers, they stifled innovation and they degraded privacy protections for millions of Americans,” she declared, summarising the accusations. Forty-five states joined her bipartisan coalition against the giant. Separately, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) sued Facebook for monopolistic practices in social-networking and demanded remedies including the firm’s break-up.
12月9日，美國政府針對全球最大的社交網絡Facebook發起了反壟斷訴訟，紐約州總檢察長萊蒂婭·詹姆斯言辭犀利地對此訴訟案進行了描述。“Facebook通過使用自身巨大的數據和資金寶庫，對其認為的潛在威脅進行壓制或阻礙。他們限制了消費者的選擇，扼殺了創新，并減少了數百萬美國人獲得隱私保護的機會，”她在總結時宣稱。她同45個州聯手組成兩黨聯盟，共同抵制社交網絡巨頭Facebook。另外，聯邦貿易委員會對Facebook在社交網絡領域的壟斷行為提起訴訟，并要求Facebook采取分拆等補救措施。
A few years ago co-ordinated action by 46 states and the FTC that could split Facebook apart was unthinkable, says Lina Khan, an antitrust scholar at Columbia Law School. But the case is about more than narrow competition law. The controversies around Facebook’s privacy practices, the spread of fake news and conspiracy theories on the platform, and its exploitation by authoritarian regimes mean regulators and politicians are set on forcing change.
哥倫比亞法學院的反壟斷學者麗娜·可汗說，46個州和聯邦貿易委員會要是在幾年前發起可能會使Facebook拆分的聯合行動，那太匪夷所思了。但此案不僅僅是關于狹義的競爭法。Facebook還存在諸多方面的爭議，包括Facebook在用戶隱私上的做法、平臺上虛假新聞和陰謀論的傳播以及獨裁政權的利用，這都意味著監管機構和政客們開始迫使Facebook發生變革。
Will they succeed? The cases look strong. Experts judge Facebook to be the lowest-hanging antitrust fruit, alongside Google (which America’s Justice Department sued over alleged monopoly abuses in October). Amazon and Apple are in the crosshairs, but those cases will take longer, if they come at all, says an antitrust expert.
他們會成功嗎？訴訟案看起來勝算很大。專家們認為，同谷歌（美國司法部10月因谷歌涉嫌壟斷濫用而起訴谷歌）一樣，Facebook的案件輕而易舉。一位反壟斷專家表示，亞馬遜和蘋果正處于眾矢之的，但針對亞馬遜和蘋果的反壟斷訴訟案如果真的來了，將需要更長的時間。
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