The US-Europe antitrust divide: Key to Silicon Valley and Chinese surveillance | Hacker News Reader

The US-Europe antitrust divide: Key to Silicon Valley and Chinese surveillance

ft.com

4 pointswolverine8764 comments

When it comes to antitrust policy, Americans are from Mars and Europeans from Venus. That was my takeaway from a major competition policy conference last week in Brussels, where all the top US and European regulators, as well as those from many other countries, tried — and failed — to develop a shared approach to the massive concentration of power that has built up in several sectors, most particularly platform technology.

Bringing the US and Europe together is key to successfully curbing both the power of Silicon Valley’s largest companies and the Chinese surveillance state, especially given how artificial intelligence is further entrenching the dominance of both.

>Americans are from Mars and Europeans from Venus. That was my takeaway from a major competition policy conference last week in Brussels, where all the top US and European regulators, as well as those from many other countries, tried — and failed — to develop a shared approach to the massive concentration of power that has built up in several sectors, most particularly platform technology.

No need for Mars vs Venus comparison, as if "ideological" differences are the reason behind this inability to agree on curbing this.

To paraphrase Upton Sinclair:

It's difficult to make a side understand the problems of "massive concentration of power that has built up in several sectors, most particularly platform technology" when it's the one doing the concentration and beneffiting from it.

The article goes on to describe the difference in approaches. What do you think of what they describe? Both governments pursue it, but by different definitions, and the US more aggressively. I'm not sure how your comment applies to that.

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