Article
Digital Dominance: The Power of Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Apple
Choice Reviews
(2018)
Abstract
Google, Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, and Apple combine to strongly affect the economic, social, and political fabric of the US. They use new competitive practices, such as initially offering free services to keep competitors at bay. Geographic constraints become irrelevant as customers can come from anywhere. Courts and legislators have not kept up with antitrust, data protection, and privacy complications. Moore (King's College London, UK) and Tambini (London School of Economics, UK) edited 15 interdisciplinary academic articles providing literature reviews, stories, and empirical data on the dominant digital companies. Beyond economic issues, the articles delve into social problems such as the manipulation of information. The presidential campaigns of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump provide a backdrop to understanding the effects of social networking and search engine misinformation, polarization, fake news, and discrimination in elections in general. Digital platforms such as Facebook can target information and group network users to efficiently deliver specific messages that may or may not be true. An independent and pluralistic free press might not be able to compete in this new environment; platform users vote based on limited information.
Disciplines
Publication Date
October, 2018
Citation Information
G. E. Kaupins. "Digital Dominance: The Power of Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Apple" Choice Reviews Vol. 56 Iss. 2 (2018) Available at: http://works.bepress.com/gundars_kaupins/111/