Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Calls Unsustainable Silicon Valley Giant Domination After Layoffs In Newsroom



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Ocio-Cortez's comments came as a result of layoffs in several news outlets, including BuzzFeed and HuffPost.

"Technological monopolies and the concentration of property are the main threats to journalism," she tweeted on Saturday, adding: "The fact is that the current monopoly trend is unsustainable on the social and economic level. We simply can not accept the cliché that "journalism is dying." Journalism will only die if we choose not to fight for it – and if journalism dies, so will our democracy. "

Since his first victory, Ocasio-Cortez has demonstrated a remarkable ability to use social media to amplify problems. 19659002] His comments on Saturday are likely to encourage criticism and draw attention to social media companies, especially Facebook.

Matt Stoller, a member of the Open Markets Institute, calls Facebook and his competitors such as Google and Amazon "extortion machines."

"[They] were effectively positioned as essential communication services that you need to use – not just as a consumer, but as a producer, whether you produce news, sports or entertainment – go through these communication channels to put your product on the market. market, "Matt Stoller, a member of the Open Markets Institute, told CNN on Saturday.

According to Stoller, this" essential "nature, combined with a commercial model based on the advertiser's money, allows companies "to distort the flow of information and recover the bulk of advertising money."

Facebook owns WhatsApp and Instagram, Friday The New York Times announced that Facebook was considering To further integrate the two companies – despite initial promises from Facebook's CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, to allow both companies to remain largely self-sustaining.

In an editorial published in the Wall Street Journal last week. Zuckerberg has championed the model that has made Facebook so powerful, which involves targeting users with ads based on their interests.

Zuckerberg said that Facebook was helping small businesses around the world

Waleed Shahid, director of communication of Justice Democrats, The group that recruited Ocasio-Cortez to run in 2018 said that deal with Big Tech was a way for Democrats to prove their commitment to fighting businesses. Power.

"Breaking and regulating the Big Tech monopolies will put many of these Democrats in conflict with some of their big donors, so it's definitely a way to prove your local skills," he said. CNN Saturday. "Democrats must take the lead in the fight against monopolies in order to end the second golden age for those who are at the top and misery for the rest of us."

Facebook did not ask CNN to react to Ocasio. The statements of -Cortez. The company recently announced plans to invest $ 300 million in programs to help news organizations.
David Cicilline, Representative of Rhode Island, Chair of the Antitrust Subcommittee of the Judiciary Committee of the House, supported Ocasio-Cortez on Saturday in a tweet: "A free and diverse press can not survive without facing the power of Facebook and Google. "

But everyone in Washington does not think that the woes of the information industry can be attributed to Big Tech.

In his own tweets about job cuts at BuzzFeed and HuffPost on Saturday, President Donald Trump wrote: "False news and bad journalism have caused a serious recession, but many more will follow. people want the truth! "

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