Issue #86
by Gary Marchionini (UNC School of Information & Library Science)
Last May, the European Union fined Meta (Facebook’s parent company) 1.2 billion Euros ($1.3B US) for violating EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) privacy laws.¹ The EU has also fined Google multiple times over the past decade for various antitrust actions, the largest totaling 2.42 billion euros ($2.6B US)² still under yet another appeal. Google has also been fined for antitrust and paid fines to India.³ On August 5, a US federal court ruled that Google is a search monopoly under US antitrust laws raising significant expectations about continued lawsuits and possible break up of Google.*
There is a long history of antitrust actions that have strongly influenced the information technology industry, ranging from the breakup of AT&T beginning in 1982 and a decade of breakup actions against Microsoft that were settled in 2001. It is important to note from these early cases that these companies still exist as major entities today. Likewise, Meta and Google will likely continue to be dominant corporations in the decades ahead. Why should information professionals be concerned with this ongoing struggle between governments and corporations?
First, and most obvious, many information professionals work in the IT industry and may have their jobs affected by reorganizations or curtailments in their workplaces. This can cause anxiety but the IT field is very dynamic and opportunities for career advancement abound for professionals who are flexible, observant, and resilient. Second, it seems clear that challenges to the status quo in key industries lead to innovation and new opportunities for creative individuals and teams to blossom. In the case of Google, its ‘installed base’ advantage of users means it has more data on what and how people are searching for information that allows it to adapt and improve, and also means low impedance for adoption by newcomers because so many people use it already. If the installed base advantage is mitigated by government regulation, there will be opportunities for new search services to develop on a somewhat more even playing field. For example, what could you do if Google search logs were made available? What could you create to help novice mobile device owners easily select which search service would be best for each search they do, or at the very least, which service should be their default service?
For iSchool leaders and educators, the tension between government regulation and free-market innovation is an issue for study and participation. We aim to help our students and the public understand that there is progress and innovation that comes from this tension. We must help them learn to be alert to the deltas of information technology industry — the boom and bust hype cycles, and the pushes into frontiers and push backs from stakeholders disrupted by those pushes. More generally, and beyond IT concerns, our curricula and perspectives on information must include treatment of the vying escalations and attenuations of scientific and social forces that shape our world.
1: EDPB. (22. May 2024). European Data Protection Board. 1.2 billion euro fine for Facebook as a result of EDPB binding decision: https://www.edpb.europa.eu/news/news/2023/12-billion-euro-fine-facebook-result-edpb-binding-decision_en
2: European Commission. (27. June 2017). European Commission. Antitrust: Commission fines Google €2.42 billion for abusing dominance as search engine by giving illegal advantage to own comparison shopping service: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_17_1784
3: BBC. (30. March 2023). BBC. Google: India tribunal upholds $160m fine on company: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-65120697
*: Robins-Early, N. (06. August 2024). The Guardian. A US judge ruled that Google built an illegal monopoly. What happens next?: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/article/2024/aug/06/google-antitrust-monopoly-ruling
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