Do you really think Big Tech is worried about Washington D.C.?

In AEI, James Pethokoukis writes,

...anti-tech activists and policymakers are pretty pumped on news that regulators and lawmakers are gearing up to scrutinize the tech titans. The Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission have apparently divvied up investigative authority over the companies. The DOJ is getting Alphabet-Google and Apple, with the FTC having oversight over Facebook and Amazon. Meanwhile, the House Judiciary Committee on Monday announced it will hold hearings into whether there’s enough competition in the tech sector. Taken together, the actions suggest broad support across Washington for the notion that Big Tech has become a problem.

...American antitrust doctrine is all about penalizing companies for being bad, not big, and in ways that harm economic welfare. It’s tough to make a broad antitrust case against companies that offer free, innovative services that consumers greatly value.

...Indeed, it’s market forces, not government actions, that are most likely to erode the dominance of Big Tech, even if the investigations result in European Union-level fines and a change in some business practices. Maybe the activists should try reading some quarterly reports from time to time. Alphabet’s most recent showed a big slowdown in Google’s ad business as it faces a growing challenge from Amazon. And while the online retailer might seem an unstoppable juggernaut, Wall Street analysts see a company surrounded by tough competitors such as Walmart and Costco, as well as the other Big Tech firms. Young adults are fleeing Facebook, which is trying to reinvent its business model to one that focuses less on targeted ads. Can Apple shift from hardware to services?

These “forever” companies face a host of challenges that never seem to get mentioned in the rush to dismantle or regulate. Of course, regulation can often help incumbents, too. This seems to be happening with Europe’s year-old data protection rule, which is increasing the ad market share of Google and Facebook vs. smaller competitors. If Big Tech stays big and avoids the natural churn of a market economy, the unintended consequences of government action rather than anti-competitive behavior might be to blame.

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