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Comment by mentalgear | Hacker News Reader

Well, I certainly prefer if big tech fight each other instead of the user as sometimes there might even come something good out of it - like elevated privacy in Apple's ATT case.

Overall, that's the reason anti-trust laws must be applied rigorously, otherwise the normal population has no chance.

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Sometimes something good (ATT). Sometimes something bad (this terrible age-verification thing that is a huge barrier to entry for small entrants and comes with massive state surveillance risk).

In the end, all the little people are just collateral damage or occasionally they get some collateral benefits from wherever the munitions land.

Personally I've lived in the world of "small entrants" and can see that but I think the average voter doesn't really understand that "just anybody" could have created an online service. That is, they think you have to have VC money, be based in Silicon Valley, have to have connections at tha pp store, that it's a right for "them" and not for "us".

This isn't about the average voter-- this is about an entrenched industry creating structural barriers to entry to protect growing monopoly power.

If ATT had been applied uniformly, sure. But Apple has exemption from its own rules. So, less trickle down benefit, and more tilting the playing field wildly in their favor. Its new advertising system is doing great!

I don't think the online advertising field is tilted "wildly in Apple's favor". Yes, Apple squeaked out one area of advantage, eliminating some crushing abuse by others in the process.

In a sane world, no one would have the kind of market power that so much hinges upon their competitive actions.

All they had to do was exempt free and open source software from the requirements, which are unworkable in the FOSS context anyway, and they would have gotten away scot-free with their tech company pillow fight.

But no, they had to let collateral damage frag the free software crowd, which is inconsequential to their aims anyway, but 100% a huge concern for those suffering the collateral damage.

They fight each other by stomping on users.

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