来源：《洛杉矶时报》
原文刊登日期：2021年7月9日
Another week, another high-profile effort to rein in Big Tech. 37 states brought against Google for allegedly abusing its dominance over mobile phone operating systems.
又是一周，又是一项备受瞩目的约束大型科技公司的尝试。37个州起诉谷歌滥用其在移动操作系统方面的主导地位。
The states’ complaint focuses on the 15% to 30% tax Google imposes on developers of apps offered through its Google Play store. Also pending are suits brought by the Justice Department and another group of states against Google, accusing it of illegally trying to protect its leading positions in online search and advertising.
这些州政府的控告集中在谷歌对谷歌应用商店上的应用程序开发者强制收取其销售额的15%至30%。司法部和其他一些州也对谷歌提起了诉讼，指控其非法试图保护其在网络搜索和广告领域的领先地位。
President Biden joined the battle with an executive order promoting competition in tech and other industries, calling on the Federal Trade Commission to scrutinize several practices by Big Tech companies that enabled them to build, defend and extend their market power. Meanwhile, the House Judiciary Committee has advanced five bills that aim to limit or even diffuse the influence wielded by Google, Facebook, Amazon and Apple.
拜登总统也加入了这场战斗，他发布了一项促进科技和其他行业竞争的行政令，呼吁联邦贸易委员会(FTC)审查大型科技公司的几项做法，这些做法让它们得以建立、保护和扩大自己的市场势力。与此同时，众议院司法委员会提出了五项法案，旨在限制甚至分散谷歌、Facebook、亚马逊和苹果的影响力。
We’re seeing all this now in part because both sides of the political divide have turned on Big Tech. The major online platforms alienated Republican and Democratic lawmakers alike with their handling of misinformation and politically charged speech, their collecting of personal information and their disturbingly vast reach and sway.
我们现在看到这一切，部分是因为政治分歧的两党都谴责大型科技公司。共和党和民主党议员对主要的网络平台都无好感，因为这些企业处理假消息和带有政治色彩言论的方式，收集个人信息，以及它们令人不安的广泛影响力。
The sustained dominance of these platforms has also weakened what used to be the faith about the internet: that the relentless innovation and competition online would inevitably upend the top dogs and usher in new market leaders, even in the absence of regulation. That faith had been well-founded — witness the rise and fall of AOL, MySpace and countless other big players. But as researchers have noted, today’s platforms are more entrenched thanks to huge advantages of scale and more aggressive efforts by the platform operators to ward off rivals.
这些平台的持续主导地位也削弱了人们过去对互联网的信念：即使在缺乏监管的情况下，互联网上无休止的创新和竞争将不可避免地颠覆龙头企业，迎来新的市场领导者。这种信念是有根据的——看看AOL、MySpace和无数其他大公司的兴衰就知道了。但正如研究人员所指出的，得益于巨大的规模优势以及平台运营商为抵御竞争对手所做的更积极努力，如今的平台变得更加牢固。
Big Tech companies insist that they aren’t standing in the way of competition, but instead giving consumers what they want. And granted, that scale and power has some public benefits. For example, people join Facebook largely because they can connect with so many others there. And for app developers, it helps to have just a few dominant platforms that can provide a secure gateway to billions of potential customers.
大型科技公司坚称，它们不是在阻碍竞争，而是在给消费者他们想要的东西。当然，这种规模和影响力会带来一些公共利益。例如，人们加入Facebook很大程度上是因为他们可以与那里的许多人建立联系。对于应用程序开发者来说，通过少数几个平台就可以为数十亿潜在客户提供服务。
The issue for policymakers and the courts, though, is whether the public is losing something by not having more competition to provide the services Big Tech platforms provide. It’s why lawmakers should pursue efforts to help rival tech companies interoperate with the platforms, make it easier for people to switch to other platforms, let consumers control their own data and toughen the rules against unfair practices by platform operators.
不过，政策制定者和法院面临的问题是，如果大型科技平台提供的服务没有更多的竞争，公众是否会失去一些东西。这就是为什么立法者应该努力帮助竞品科技公司与这些平台进行互操作，让人们更容易转向其他平台，让消费者控制自己的数据，并加强对平台运营商不公平行为的监管。
The internet flourished in its formative years with little or no regulation. The sustained dominance of a handful of Big Tech companies, however, shows that those days are over. The network effects of the internet encourage the development of monopoly power, and it’s up to the courts and Congress to make sure that power isn’t abused.
互联网在其形成期蓬勃发展，很少或没有监管。然而，少数几家大型科技公司的持续主导地位表明，那种日子已经过去了。互联网的网络效应促进了垄断权力的发展，法院和国会有责任确保这种权力不被滥用。