In discussing Senator Elizabeth Warren’s proposal to treat technology firms like Google and Facebook as public utilities, an article on bloomberg.com observes, “Public utility regulation is usually an acknowledgement that monopolies naturally occur in some markets and the best thing to do is to come up with a way to live with them.”
a. In what ways are Google and Facebook like public utilities? In what ways are they different from public utilities?
b. The president of a foundation connected with the technology industry argued against Warren’s proposal, noting, “The proposal ignores the fact that many of the services big tech companies now provide free used to cost consumers money.” What services do Google and Facebook provide now for free that consumers had to pay for prior to the development of the Internet?
c. What information would you need in order to determine whether consumers would be better off if Google and Facebook were broken up or regulated as public utilities rather than being allowed to continue operating as they do now?