{"id":1104,"date":"2021-03-09T01:39:14","date_gmt":"2021-03-09T01:39:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/fridaylunch\/?p=1104"},"modified":"2024-06-10T01:40:38","modified_gmt":"2024-06-10T01:40:38","slug":"whats-the-problem-with-big-tech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/fridaylunch\/2021\/03\/09\/whats-the-problem-with-big-tech\/","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s the Problem With Big Tech?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
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\"college
\nCenter for Policy Studies
\nPublic Affairs Discussion Group<\/span><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
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What\u2019s the Problem With Big Tech?<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
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\"headshot\"<\/p>\n

Anat Alon-Beck, LL.M, SJD – Assistant Professor of Law<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
Friday March 19, 2021
\n12:30-1:30 p.m.
\nOnline Zoom Meeting<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Dear Colleagues:<\/p>\n

Greetings, and I hope the new year and new semester are going well for you as Spring approaches. It has been a year since much of the world went into degrees of lockdown in reasonable fear of the virus. May we all stay very well and the vaccines eventually allow something more like normal life.<\/p>\n

One of the effects of the pandemic has been that we\u2019ve become even more dependent on \u201cBig Tech\u201d \u2013 on Google and Facebook and Apple and Amazon – for both our business and social lives. But their reach into our lives has been expanding for many years.<\/p>\n

Over the past year worries about their power rose towards the top of political agendas. In July the CEOs of all four companies were grilled, virtually, in a<\/span>\u00a0House Judiciary Committee<\/span><\/a>\u00a0hearing on \u201cMonopoly Power.\u201d This was followed by<\/span>\u00a0an extensive report<\/span><\/a>\u00a0on \u201cCompetition in the Digital Marketplace\u201d based on seven hearings and further research. In October the Department of Justice and eleven Republican state attorneys general sued Google for allegedly violating antitrust laws. In December two more cases were brought against Google by groups of attorneys general. In December also the Federal Trade Commission sued Facebook for \u201cillegally maintaining its personal social networking monopoly through a years-long course of anticompetitive conduct.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0Simultaneously, 48 state attorneys general also sued Facebook<\/span><\/a>\u00a0for its allegedly anticompetitive behavior. Meanwhile, European regulators had begun to take on \u201cBig Tech\u201d earlier, and now various private lawsuits are building on the evidence from the government cases.<\/p>\n

Some<\/span>\u00a0suits have been brought by conservative outlets<\/span><\/a>, Parler and Rumble, which claim that the tech giants are biased against conservative organizations. They object, for example, to<\/span>\u00a0Amazon having dropped hosting of Parler<\/span><\/a>\u00a0on Amazon Web Services due to incitement to violence on the site. It\u2019s fair to say that<\/span>\u00a0politicians across the partisan spectrum<\/span><\/a>\u00a0have proclaimed their concerns, though it\u2019s not clear that they share the same concerns. For example, the Trump administration pushed to repeal Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act, which shields internet service providers from any liability for content on their platforms. But then conservatives have objected to the platforms banning content that could incite violence and thereby \u2013 if Section 230 were repealed \u2013 create liability risk for them. Meanwhile, in spite of all the complaints about monopoly, lots of people seem to think the products are a good deal \u2013 as we will see in our March 26 program about Amazon!<\/p>\n

So what\u2019s the problem, or what are the problems, that we should be worrying about? They include, potentially, monopolistic behavior in violation of antitrust statutes and restrictions on competition. But the controversies also include concerns about privacy, free speech (and hate speech), and political identity. Other issues, less visible to some of us but prominent within the firms, include labor-management relations, management of human capital, and activism from both within and outside the companies. Ultimately the power of these companies raises the profile of an issue that is only beginning to emerge from decades of suppression: who are the stakeholders in corporations? Since the 1970s economic and legal theory has been dominated by a view that only shareholders have a legitimate stake \u2013 not workers, not customers, and not others affected by corporate behavior. But when corporations start looking more and more like they have power much like a government\u2019s over us, that becomes harder to defend.<\/p>\n

Professor Alon-Beck studies legal and regulatory structures that shape corporate behavior. She also is a frequent contributor to\u00a0Forbes<\/em>, including recent pieces on antitrust, venture capital, corporate governance and tech employees. Join us as she shares perspectives and we all can guess if all these lawsuits and hearings are \u201csound and fury, signifying nothing\u201d\u2026.<\/span><\/p>\n

Signing In<\/h3>\n

This semester’s discussions will begin at 12:30 p.m., the usual time. The meeting will be set up as from Noon to 2:00 p.m., so people are not all signing in at the same time and to allow for the discussion to run a bit long.\u00a0Each week we will send out this newsletter with information about the topic. It will also include a link to register (for free) for the discussion.<\/strong>\u00a0Every Monday the same information will be posted on our website:<\/span>\u00a0fridaylunch.case.edu<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n

If you register, you will automatically receive from the Zoom system the link to join the meeting. This week’s link for registration is:<\/span><\/p>\n

https:\/\/cwru.zoom.us\/meeting\/register\/tJwkd-yqrz8tG9KRJZPtEOAVseIUPSk1-fmj<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.<\/p>\n

Please e-mail<\/span>\u00a0padg@case.edu<\/span><\/a>\u00a0if you have questions about how the Zoom version of the Friday Lunch will work or any other suggestions. Or call at 216 368-2426 and we’ll try to get back to you. We are very pleased to be partnering this semester with the<\/span>\u00a0Siegal Lifelong Learning Program<\/span><\/a><\/strong>\u00a0to share information about the discussions.<\/p>\n

Best wishes for safety and security for you and yours,<\/p>\n

Joe White
\nLuxenberg Family Professor of Public Policy and Director, Center for Policy Studies<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

About Our Guest<\/span><\/h3>\n

Professor Alon-Beck\u2019s<\/strong>\u00a0research focuses on corporate law and entrepreneurship, with a particular focus on how legal and regulatory structures influence entrepreneurial opportunities and firms. She is passionate about empowering women to advance in entrepreneurship and leadership positions in the business world.<\/p>\n

Professor Alon-Beck joined the faculty of Case Western Reserve from the New York University School of Law, where she served as the Jacobson Fellow in Law and Business. Prior to NYU, she was a visiting assistant professor of International Business and Management at Dickinson College.<\/p>\n

Professor Alon-Beck holds SJD and LL.M degrees, with honors, from Cornell Law School, where she served as an editor of the\u00a0Cornell International Law Journal<\/em>. She received her LL.M from Tel Aviv University Buchmann Faculty of Law and served as an editor of\u00a0Theoretical Inquiries in Law<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Schedule of Friday Lunch Upcoming Topics and Speakers:<\/strong><\/p>\n

March 26: Behemoth: Amazon Rising.<\/strong>\u00a0With\u00a0Robin Gaster, Ph.D.<\/strong>, President, Incumetrics Inc. and Visiting Scholar, George Washington University.<\/p>\n

April 2: Student Debt: What Are the Problems? For Whom? And What Could Be Done?<\/strong>\u00a0With\u00a0Richard Kazis<\/strong>, Senior Consultant, MDRC, Nonresident Senior Fellow in the Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program, and Board Chair of The Institute for College Access and Services.<\/p>\n

April 9: Healthcare, Public Health, and Population Health.<\/strong>\u00a0With\u00a0Scott Frank, MD<\/strong>, Associate Professor and Director of Public Health Initiatives, Department of Population and Quantitative Health Sciences.<\/p>\n

April 16: Dropping the Pilot? Assessing Angela Merkel\u2019s Chancellorship.<\/strong>\u00a0With\u00a0Kenneth F. Ledford, Ph.D.<\/strong>, Chair, Department of History.<\/p>\n

April 23: Depression\u2019s Past and Future.<\/strong>\u00a0With\u00a0Jonathan Sadowsky, Ph.D.<\/strong>, Theodore J. Castele Professor of History.<\/p>\n

April 30: The Republican Party and Demographic Change.<\/strong>\u00a0With\u00a0Girma Parris, Ph.D.<\/strong>, Visiting Assistant Professor of Political Science.<\/p>\n

May 7: Defending Disability Insurance.<\/strong>\u00a0With\u00a0Kathy Ruffing<\/strong>, Senior Fellow, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
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Visit the\u00a0Public Affairs Discussion Group Web Site.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Center for Policy Studies | Mather House 111 | 11201 Euclid Avenue |
\nCleveland, Ohio 44106-7109 |\u00a0Phone: 216.368.6730 |\u00a0padg@case.edu<\/u><\/span><\/a>\u00a0|
\nPart of the:\u00a0College of Arts and Sciences<\/u><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a9 2021 Case Western Reserve University |
\nCleveland, Ohio 44106 | 216.368.2000 |\u00a0legal notice<\/u><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Center for Policy Studies
\nPublic Affairs Discussion Group<\/strong><\/p>\n

What\u2019s the Problem With Big Tech?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Anat Alon-Beck, LL.M, SJD – Assistant Professor of Law<\/strong><\/p>\n

Friday March 19, 2021
\n12:30-1:30 p.m.
\nOnline Zoom Meeting<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dear Colleagues:<\/p>\n

Greetings, and I hope the new year and new semester are going well for you as Spring approaches. It has been a year since much of the world went into degrees of lockdown in reasonable fear of the virus. May we all stay very well and the vaccines eventually allow something more like normal life.<\/p>\n

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