Rep. Ken Buck Pens New Book Saying Big Tech Is "crushing" Competition And Speech

A Colorado congressman is taking on one of the world's four most powerful tech companies.

Ken Buck says Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google are monopolies: "These companies stifle competition and stifle speech."

"Crushed: Big Tex's War on Free Speech" is the apt title of Buck's new book, which he calls "leveling the playing field for all creators."

"It's amazing how these companies can get away with what they do," he said.

In the book, Buck explains how Apple copied the tracking device from Tile, then synced the iPhone's operating system with Tile, hid permissions to enable the Tile app, and ran ads to promote Tile. It appeared, but was taken by fake Apple customers. And he says there are many similar stories of tech giants with market power.

"There's a company called ProtonMail. It's an encrypted mail service. When ProtonMail users send emails to Gmail users, Gmail automatically puts them in the spam folder. So they're penalizing people who don't use Gmail," Buck said.

Big Tech's disproportionate power threatens not only the free market, but freedom of expression: "The market of companies and the market of ideas are intertwined. Without freedom of expression, there can be no business market." business, and know exactly how to use that product to maximize profits.

"Today, the marketplace of ideas is a closed society in the digital sphere," he says in the book.

According to Buck, the algorithm not only deletes comments it doesn't like, but completely silences dissenting voices.

"Facebook and Twitter took down Hunter Biden's story because it could hurt Joe Biden in the general election in two weeks," he said. I know some people in the audience are going to say, "I'm glad they did the right censorship," but I guarantee you that when the Republicans take over and these corporations want something from the Republicans. Censor it. Leave it."

Big Tech also controls the data market: Our Data-Beck says: "What we type into a search engine, the websites we visit, the posts we make on social media, the ads we click and the purchases we make."

And the control is in our hands, he says: “Stop using these products as much as possible.

At the end of the book, Buck offers recommendations for people who want to take action: using search engines instead of Google, shopping options other than Amazon, alternative music streaming apps and social media options.

It also recommends changing your settings to turn off tracking and clean up web activity. He admits that complete abstinence is difficult. On Twitter and as a congressman boycotting the big four as much as possible, the phone they've been given is an iPhone.

His colleagues turned him left and right. He admits to being skeptical. He recalled attending a Boulder anti-competition committee meeting two years ago: "I'm the only Republican. It's 19 degrees outside. I'm not a happy camper."

He also knew that hearing about competition in the digital economy was a waste of time, "because I know the answer is the free market."

But as he sat in Boulder that day, listening to companies tell stories of threats, blackmail and retaliation from the nation's biggest tech companies, Buck, a free-market conservative, said, "It became clear to me that there is no such thing as that." free market”.

And he knew it would never work unless Congress acted. He says the titans of technology are today's pirates.

Two years after the Buck Boulder hearings, he pushed for antitrust legislation with the support of Democratic U.S. Representative Joe Monk.

While Big Tech has gotten away with most of the law, passing several bills last year could lead to more lawsuits against the law, and Buck says we're not giving up. He says our democracy is at risk.

"I have hope," said Buck. "I wouldn't be doing this job if I didn't have hope. I believe the American people will rise up and act on this."

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