Rep. David Cicilline, leading a push for a new Big Tech antitrust legislation, says it will prohibit Apple from impeding users from removing pre-installed apps
distracting the company from its growth areas, risking regulatory retaliation, making its higher information users mad, and all not actually that much $$ in Apple terms. https://www.slowboring.com/... Steven Sinofsky / @stevesi : A funny thing about this was how Apple including pages, numbers, keynote *pushed*'competition towards the dominant incumbent productivity suite. https://twitter.com/... Rep. Ken Buck / @repkenbuck : Big Tech and the DC Swamp are lobbying against my antitrust bills. Don't side with them. Break them up. Luther Lowe / @lutherlowe : Hey look the entire basis of @benedictevans tweet storm is a bad faith read of a misquoting of @davidcicilline. Maybe we should stop looking to VCs (who are in on the take) for our antitrust analysis https://twitter.com/... Eric Seufert / @eric_seufert : Probably unsurprisingly, I find the anti-trust bills directed at “Big Tech” that were introduced by the House last week to be very troubling. Not because legislators dont understand the products. But because the business models are not understood (1/X) https://www.youtube.com/... Jonah Goldberg / @jonahdispatch : Struggling to understand why this isn't preposterous. https://twitter.com/... Rebecca Kern / @rebeccamkern : We've updated our story to reflect revisions that platforms like Apple wouldn't be allowed to block users from deleting pre-installed apps. While Apple could pre-install apps, they couldn't advantage their apps over competitors https://www.bloomberg.com/... Marsha Collier / @marshacollier : #Apple Pre-Installed Apps Would Be Banned Under Antitrust Package Legislation prohibits #tech platforms from giving an advantage to their own products over those of competitors ❓Does this mean #Samsung as well? ❓ #AntiTrust https://finance.yahoo.com/... https://twitter.com/... Timothy Sandefur / @timothysandefur : As usual with antitrust law: stupid and counterproductive. https://twitter.com/... Sean Hackbarth / @seanhackbarth : Oh, so Members of Congress want to destroy the perfectly capable “supercomputer” in my pocket. Gee, thanks? https://twitter.com/... Benedict Evans / @benedictevans : @lutherlowe @rebeccamkern There are two laws. One of them bans self-referencing. The other bans pre-install of any app or device anyone could compete with, which , by definition, means any app at all. Instead of accusing people of lying, you should perhaps read the actual bills PoliMath / @politicalmath : I'm pretty ok with this Apple has brought this on themselves with truly grotesque anti-competitive business practices in their app store https://gadgets.ndtv.com/... https://twitter.com/... Benedict Evans / @benedictevans : Probably not a good thing that the first time I've thought of Yelp in about 5 years is to discover its head lobbyist is accusing me of being bribed by Apple. 👀 Max Woolf / @minimaxir : technically the App Store is a preinstalled app https://twitter.com/... Benny Rom / @benjarom3 : @charlesarthur If you were careful with the UX it would not be that bad. “What email service do you use?” etc is really not that big a deal to ask once per iCloud account, is it? Eric Seufert / @eric_seufert : 6/ The “Senator, we run ads” moment makes me skeptical that the government can police these companies as they engage in anticompetitive self-dealing dressed up as goodwill to the consumer (eg ATT). Whats happening is regulatory capture through confusion / distraction Adam Thierer / @adamthierer : America's new #antitrust policy approach will apparently mandate a return to the flip phone era. 🤦 This is recipe for not only undermining consumer welfare but for destroying US national competitiveness. A horrible step backwards. https://twitter.com/... Heath Mayo / @heathmayo : Actively damaging consumer welfare in the name of “consumer welfare.” Brilliant... https://twitter.com/... Bob Wyman / @bobwyman : @benedictevans Can you propose better wording? I believe the intent is to say that if you operate a covered platform, you should not compete directly with users of that platform on that platform. (i.e. If you're Amazon, you should not publish books for sale on Amazon.) How would you word that? Benedict Evans / @benedictevans : Since some people are confused by this, the US has two proposed bills relating to apps on smartphones. One of them bans self-preferencing of Apple/Google's own services (reasonable) The other bans them from having any feature anyone else might want to make (insane) https://twitter.com/... Michael Gartenberg / @gartenberg : Correction, Cicilline didn't say that. Bloomberg reporter misunderstood him and has had to correct the story. So he's still clueless but perhaps not an idiot. https://twitter.com/... Rep. Ken Buck / @repkenbuck : I'm not taking a cent from Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Apple. Why are Republicans taking money from companies that censor conservatives? @alexlindsay : If you are an Apple User that enjoys ease of use, privacy, and things just working... The new bills proposed in Congress are an existential threat to your way of life. If you are OK with everything be like Android... It's fine, go about your business. Everything will be fine. Benedict Evans / @benedictevans : @bobwyman It's complicated. I wrote about some of the issues here. https://www.ben-evans.com/... Miguel de Icaza / @migueldeicaza : This has got to be the dumbest legislation I have ever seen. Might as well nationalize big tech, it would suck less. https://twitter.com/... Rep. Ken Buck / @repkenbuck : Big Tech is lobbying against my antitrust bills. Yet some Republicans are saying these bills help Big Tech? https://twitter.com/... Chris Lacy / @chrismlacy : My 2 cents: I've no problem w. Apple preinstalling its own apps. But I think: 1. Users must be able to change defaults for all apps. 2. Apple must allow 3rd parties to compete in currently closed app categories such as home screen, wallpapers, etc. https://www.bloomberg.com/... Richard Hoeg / @hoeglaw : Cool, seems I have another author of moronic tech legislation to add to my annual Senator Hawley deep dive. Remember folks, the fight against technology is bipartisan, but both sides are equally silly in the tools they intend to wield. https://twitter.com/... Alex Kantrowitz / @kantrowitz : Very interesting watching the backlash to the big tech bills take shape. Yes, the tech companies are funding some of the opposition. But... there are legit pros and cons to the legislation. It's going to be a fascinating debate. Charles Arthur / @charlesarthur : Does the OS count as an app? What's the dividing line? https://twitter.com/... Adam Kovacevich / @adamkovac : .@davidcicilline acknowledged that his bill would *ban* iPhones from coming with: 🚫iMessage 🚫FaceTime 🚫Find My Phone 🚫Notes 🚫Apple Podcasts It seems hard to fathom that this is what voters want from Congress. https://www.bloomberg.com/... https://twitter.com/... Christopher Beddow / @cbed32 : Would this affect Google as well as Apple? It could be a game changer if new consumer maps users got to choose an app manually, even if app search/précédent favors those big apps, it gives @openstreetmap based apps an opportunity for wider adoption. https://www.bloomberg.com/... Ken Yeung / @thekenyeung : Apple would be prohibited from preloading its apps under the antitrust bills introduced into the House. Wow, would this also be the same for Google? Can we do this for bloatware? :) https://www.bloomberg.com/... Neil Chilson / @neil_chilson : Up next: Blue Apron and Hungry Root cannot bundle recipes AND ingredients in the same meal kit. It's for your own good, people. https://twitter.com/... Dare Obasanjo / @carnage4life : Trying to picture buying a new iPhone and being dumped into the App Store on turning it on because antitrust law bans default apps on your phone. Will users consider this a better experience? Will people be mad when Apple search ads revenue booms? So many questions. https://twitter.com/... John Paczkowski / @johnpaczkowski : So much for “it just works” https://twitter.com/... Benedict Evans / @benedictevans : I do have a general thesis on regulation that utterly stupid laws like this are actually less of a problem, because they can't be implemented at all. The thing to watch are complex messes like cookie laws, that can implemented and cause lots of low level aggravation every day. Harry McCracken / @harrymccracken : Not sure that this would solve any of the real issues relating to the App Store economy. https://www.bloomberg.com/... Benedict Evans / @benedictevans : What purpose is solved by proposals this foolish? It's another ‘senator, we sell ads’ moment Benedict Evans / @benedictevans : Would it come with a command line or would you have to buy that once you'd turned on the phone? https://twitter.com/... Alec Stapp / @alecstapp : .@mattyglesias has the correct take on Apple & the App Store: Apple's conduct isn't illegal under current law and legislative proposals to make it illegal would likely do more harm than good. But Apple executives are making a mistake in how they currently run the App Store. https://twitter.com/... Alec Stapp / @alecstapp : I differ slightly with @mattyglesias on the solution. Apple should change commissions to 30% for games and 0% for non-game apps. Games make up about 80% of App Store revenue anyway and 30% commission is industry standard (see Xbox/Playstation/Nintendo) https://twitter.com/... Dare Obasanjo / @carnage4life : Microsoft catching a stray bullet after going around the world lobbying governments to regulate big tech is classic. Pending U.S. bills would ban acquisitions or competing with anyone who builds on its platforms (Office, Windows, Azure, etc). Oops. 🤦🏾♂ ️ https://twitter.com/... Benedict Evans / @benedictevans : The funniest thing about this wave of antitrust bills is that it's written to catch, block and shut down Microsoft, even though no-one in tech has been scared of Microsoft killing them for 10 or 15 years. Be careful what you lobby for...
.@davidcicilline confirmed that under his new antitrust legislation, @Apple would be banned from pre-installing apps on their iPhones/ read more on @TheTerminal @business
Just to correct the record, this is not what Cicilline said. iPhones can be shipped with pre-installed apps, but Apple could not stop someone from un-installing or changing their default settings under the non-discrimination bill. https://twitter.com/...
Please read the bill instead of pushing misinformation. The bill explicitly prohibits Apple from restricting or impeding iPhone users from un-installing apps that have been preinstalled. This provision does not prohibit Apple from pre-installing Apps in the first place. https://t…
Democratic Representative David Cicilline is clearly a clueless idiot. Other than that, his legislative ideas make perfect sense. https://t.co/7EImQeSMzj
@lutherlowe @davidcicilline Black and white. You cannot provide any product or service on your platform. that could describe, well, anything. I know you (unlike me) are in fact paid to talk about this stuff, but you can still read the laws. https://twitter.com/...
5/ If you want to reign in FB's market power you have to break or create competitive intromission for its ads engine. Data portability doesnt accomplish that. But in the meantime, Apple is doing *exactly* that under the guise of privacy policy https://mobiledevmemo.com/...
1: you cannot provide any product or service on your platform. That could mean anything. Spam detection? A clock? Maps? 2: you can't make anything that you could even theoretically give an unfair advantage to, even if you don't give it that advantage. So, you can't make..
@lutherlowe @davidcicilline Hey Luther - 1: I'm not a VC 2: Since you accuse me of being ‘on the take’, no, I was not paid to say that by Apple. 3: The bill proposed does, explicitly and unambiguously, ban Apple for pre-installing any app. I suggest you read it. You can find it i…
We won't get Medicare for all, expanded Supreme Court, infrastructure bill, election reform, but we are going to get a bipartisan bill to force Apple and Google to let you delete systems apps. Truly, Zuckerberg is the gift that keeps on giving.
@charlesarthur If you were careful with the UX it would not be that bad. “What email service do you use?” etc is really not that big a deal to ask once per iCloud account, is it?
6/ The “Senator, we run ads” moment makes me skeptical that the government can police these companies as they engage in anticompetitive self-dealing dressed up as goodwill to the consumer (eg ATT). Whats happening is regulatory capture through confusion / distraction
I guess I'll just make this into a thread in hope that corrections become a thing for substackers. Bills can get modified but this is pretty important and inaccurate. It would only forbid Apple from restricting deletion of pre-installed apps. only here to help. https://twitter.co…
@benjarom3 what would happen in reality: you'd buy from the carrier, who'd preload it with junk. And their own App Store. Please explain how this is in any way better.
America's new #antitrust policy approach will apparently mandate a return to the flip phone era. 🤦 This is recipe for not only undermining consumer welfare but for destroying US national competitiveness. A horrible step backwards. https://twitter.com/...
Today's post: Apple's App Store rent seeking is worse than a crime, it's a blunder — distracting the company from its growth areas, risking regulatory retaliation, making its higher information users mad, and all not actually that much $$ in Apple terms. https://www.slowboring.co…
A funny thing about this was how Apple including pages, numbers, keynote *pushed*'competition towards the dominant incumbent productivity suite. https://twitter.com/...
@benedictevans Can you propose better wording? I believe the intent is to say that if you operate a covered platform, you should not compete directly with users of that platform on that platform. (i.e. If you're Amazon, you should not publish books for sale on Amazon.) How would …
Since some people are confused by this, the US has two proposed bills relating to apps on smartphones. One of them bans self-preferencing of Apple/Google's own services (reasonable) The other bans them from having any feature anyone else might want to make (insane) https://twitte…
Would this affect Google as well as Apple? It could be a game changer if new consumer maps users got to choose an app manually, even if app search/précédent favors those big apps, it gives @openstreetmap based apps an opportunity for wider adoption. https://www.bloomberg.com/...
Hey look the entire basis of @benedictevans tweet storm is a bad faith read of a misquoting of @davidcicilline. Maybe we should stop looking to VCs (who are in on the take) for our antitrust analysis https://twitter.com/...
Correction, Cicilline didn't say that. Bloomberg reporter misunderstood him and has had to correct the story. So he's still clueless but perhaps not an idiot. https://twitter.com/...
Probably unsurprisingly, I find the anti-trust bills directed at “Big Tech” that were introduced by the House last week to be very troubling. Not because legislators dont understand the products. But because the business models are not understood (1/X) https://www.youtube.com/...
We've updated our story to reflect revisions that platforms like Apple wouldn't be allowed to block users from deleting pre-installed apps. While Apple could pre-install apps, they couldn't advantage their apps over competitors https://www.bloomberg.com/...
#Apple Pre-Installed Apps Would Be Banned Under Antitrust Package Legislation prohibits #tech platforms from giving an advantage to their own products over those of competitors ❓Does this mean #Samsung as well? ❓ #AntiTrust https://finance.yahoo.com/... https://twitter.com/...
If you are an Apple User that enjoys ease of use, privacy, and things just working... The new bills proposed in Congress are an existential threat to your way of life. If you are OK with everything be like Android... It's fine, go about your business. Everything will be fine.
@lutherlowe @rebeccamkern There are two laws. One of them bans self-referencing. The other bans pre-install of any app or device anyone could compete with, which , by definition, means any app at all. Instead of accusing people of lying, you should perhaps read the actual bills
I'm pretty ok with this Apple has brought this on themselves with truly grotesque anti-competitive business practices in their app store https://gadgets.ndtv.com/... https://twitter.com/...
My 2 cents: I've no problem w. Apple preinstalling its own apps. But I think: 1. Users must be able to change defaults for all apps. 2. Apple must allow 3rd parties to compete in currently closed app categories such as home screen, wallpapers, etc. https://www.bloomberg.com/...
Probably not a good thing that the first time I've thought of Yelp in about 5 years is to discover its head lobbyist is accusing me of being bribed by Apple. 👀
.@davidcicilline acknowledged that his bill would *ban* iPhones from coming with: 🚫iMessage 🚫FaceTime 🚫Find My Phone 🚫Notes 🚫Apple Podcasts It seems hard to fathom that this is what voters want from Congress. https://www.bloomberg.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Cool, seems I have another author of moronic tech legislation to add to my annual Senator Hawley deep dive. Remember folks, the fight against technology is bipartisan, but both sides are equally silly in the tools they intend to wield. https://twitter.com/...
Very interesting watching the backlash to the big tech bills take shape. Yes, the tech companies are funding some of the opposition. But... there are legit pros and cons to the legislation. It's going to be a fascinating debate.
Apple would be prohibited from preloading its apps under the antitrust bills introduced into the House. Wow, would this also be the same for Google? Can we do this for bloatware? :) https://www.bloomberg.com/...
Up next: Blue Apron and Hungry Root cannot bundle recipes AND ingredients in the same meal kit. It's for your own good, people. https://twitter.com/...
Trying to picture buying a new iPhone and being dumped into the App Store on turning it on because antitrust law bans default apps on your phone. Will users consider this a better experience? Will people be mad when Apple search ads revenue booms? So many questions. https://twitt…
I do have a general thesis on regulation that utterly stupid laws like this are actually less of a problem, because they can't be implemented at all. The thing to watch are complex messes like cookie laws, that can implemented and cause lots of low level aggravation every day.
I differ slightly with @mattyglesias on the solution. Apple should change commissions to 30% for games and 0% for non-game apps. Games make up about 80% of App Store revenue anyway and 30% commission is industry standard (see Xbox/Playstation/Nintendo) https://twitter.com/...
.@mattyglesias has the correct take on Apple & the App Store: Apple's conduct isn't illegal under current law and legislative proposals to make it illegal would likely do more harm than good. But Apple executives are making a mistake in how they currently run the App Store. https…