Las Vegas - We need to address the elephant in the room. Conversations about new legislation and even the "breakup" of large technology companies like Facebook, Google, Apple, and Amazon have gained momentum with public support from politicians and business leaders.
Senator Elizabeth Warren , who is vying for the Democratic presidential nomination, and Salesforce founder Marc Benioff are two prominent figures who have spoken openly about the need to regulate the Silicon Valley giants.
It is therefore natural that the world's largest technology fair, CES 2020, would also provide a space for discussion of the subject.
On stage, five professionals from different backgrounds, but connected by technology and entrepreneurship, shared their opinions.
Robert Atkinson, president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, kicked off the debate and expressed his absolute opposition to the proposal to break up the megaconglomerates.
"The fact that these companies are large is not a problem, especially since this structure gives them the power to make large investments," Atkinson argued, using WhatsApp as an example, an application that Facebook maintains for free and which has 300 million active users daily.
According to Atkinson, the collapse of Silicon Valley giants could stifle innovation in the sector, which would be detrimental to the entire world.
Not everyone in the spotlight, however, seemed to agree with this discourse. The counterpoint came from Charlotte Slaiman, senior advisor at Public Knowledge, an NGO that fights for freedom of expression.
"We understand that regulation is indeed necessary for dominant platforms, those that function as gatekeepers ," said Slaiman, adding his concern about the accumulation of power in the hands of these entrepreneurs.
Taking the floor, Zach Graves, head of policy at Lincoln Networks, an institution that promotes freedom in technology, confessed that "he sees a lot of talk, but little action." According to him, people are more concerned with other political issues, and "breaking up" Big Tech is not the solution to the problems.
Unlike her colleague on stage, Jennifer Huddleston, a researcher at the Mercatus Center consultancy, believes the issue is urgent and that people are interested. But she agrees that the extreme proposal of division is not the best approach.
Refuting the argument that these Silicon Valley giants impose monopolies and therefore need limits, Huddleston points out that "history shows how companies that seemed invincible were either completely annihilated by competitors, or forced to change their line of work."
Just as Netflix retired Blockbuster, the iPhone ended Nokia's reign, and digital cameras made Kodak obsolete, these giants are also susceptible to other innovations and other competitors.
"Generations X and Y adopted Google and Facebook, but Generation Z turned to other names in technology, such as Snapchat. The market is more fluid and complicated today," Huddleston reflects.
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