Breaking up a company presumes you identify separate , stand-alone units that are being cross-leveraged unfairly. You could have made that argument about Windows and Office. But it doesn’t automatically apply to any big company you want action against.

— Benedict Evans (@benedictevans) March 8, 2019

Meanwhile, arguing you should split up Amazon is like splitting up Walmart - into what? It’s a single logistics platform (and no, AWS is not subsidizing the rest of the business. Read the accounts).

— Benedict Evans (@benedictevans) March 8, 2019

Google, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram have been enormous enablers of small business entrepreneurship. Dollar Shave Club could not have existed without YouTube. Kylie Jenner could not have become the youngest billionaire without Instagram. To claim these companies hurt small

— Marcelo P. Lima (@MarceloPLima) March 8, 2019

businesses is to fundamentally misunderstand what is actually going on. Finally, why aren't we talking about *actual* problems like the skyrocketing cost of housing, healthcare and education, which were 88% of ALL inflation since 1990?https://t.co/ULQc4e9Zwt

— Marcelo P. Lima (@MarceloPLima) March 8, 2019

It's interesting how telecom gets excluded from these conversations.

Comcast and AT&T are broadcasters and news empires that have monopolized access itself. With grand ambitions to be every bit as bad as Facebook in the online ad space.

Yet telecom gets nary a mention. https://t.co/Yj634svZuh

— Karl Bode (@KarlBode) March 8, 2019

If you think some intervention is needed against some industry or company, you need to define what exactly the harm you’re addressing is (‘they’re big’ is not good enough), and how the specific remedy you propose changes that. ‘Break it up’ is not a policy analysis.

— Benedict Evans (@benedictevans) March 8, 2019

Warren's proposal would do interesting things to companies like Microsoft, too. If I'm reading it right, MS could not both own a store on Windows and Xbox, and also sell their own apps and games on it. They'd have to split off parts of their business.

— Jason Cross (@JasonCross00) March 8, 2019

So @SenWarren's plan appears to be the epitome of "Something must be done!" "This is something!" "We will do it!" Very little in it makes sense, and what little does make sense won't accomplish what Warren and her supporters seem to think it will accomplish. It's bad policy. https://t.co/Pyz7FJzRx3

— Mike Masnick (@mmasnick) March 8, 2019

what *actually* happened was ably explained by @benthompson:https://t.co/SaCdyJE3ks pic.twitter.com/mzAW5h9vaW

— Marcelo P. Lima (@MarceloPLima) March 8, 2019

The top highlight in Sen. Warren's post is about Microsoft's antitrust lawsuit and how that paved the way for Google search. This is a dramatic misunderstanding of what actually happened, how crucial were corporate incentives, organization, and the power of innovation. Instead,

— Marcelo P. Lima (@MarceloPLima) March 8, 2019

Weird disconnect: Sen Warren’s proposal to “break up Bi Tech” begins by lauding the case against Microsoft which resulted in decision not to break up Microsoft. Here’s how we can break up Big Tech – Team Warren – Medium https://t.co/YvWw2gkQFs

— Daniel A. Crane (@DanielDancrane) March 8, 2019

Warren making a long comparison between platform companies like Google and Facebook and railroad monopolies -- a comparison most people usually make to ISPs. This is something conservatives have traditionally been doing, not mainstream Dems.

— nilay patel (@reckless) March 9, 2019

I'm not saying this isn't the right thing to do, but I don't think it's an issue that the vast majority of people care about or probably even think about https://t.co/Ra2X2Uw1GJ

— Mathew Ingram (@mathewi) March 8, 2019

If big companies like Google, Facebook, and Amazon are prevented from acquiring startups, that actually reduces competition. The reason is that if there is less M&A due to legal uncertainty, there is a reduced incentive for angels & VCs to fund those startups in the first place.

— Balaji S. Srinivasan (@balajis) March 8, 2019

So, splitting AT&T by region just replaced a national monopoly with regional monopolies. Not a success. And you could argue for splitting YouTube from Google or Instagram from Facebook, but what does that do to the strength of Search or the Newsfeed?

— Benedict Evans (@benedictevans) March 8, 2019

first go after Walmart's, which is much larger ($514 bn in sales vs $232 bn in sales for Amazon). Guess what? Since the dawn of retail, it's been a tug of war between private label and brands. If you want background on this, read this book https://t.co/LaZH9vZb15

— Marcelo P. Lima (@MarceloPLima) March 8, 2019

I read Sen. Warren's post. There are many factual errors. For instance, she says Amazon is 50% of ecommerce and *therefore* must be broken up. But ecommerce is 10% of retail in the US, so Amazon has 5% market share. If you are going after Amazon's private label business, you must

— Marcelo P. Lima (@MarceloPLima) March 8, 2019

Elizabeth Warren takes on Amazon at Long Island City campaign event https://t.co/Krwg15bVnc pic.twitter.com/c3TaNBdvh9

— The Verge (@verge) March 9, 2019

“That is the problem in America today. We have these giant tech companies that think they rule the earth.” https://t.co/tdlmUhfPr2

— Russell Brandom (@russellbrandom) March 9, 2019

The always-worth-a-read @mmasnick asks some good questions about @ewarren's plan to break up and regulate big tech. https://t.co/hBT9Vn8jJS

— Rob Pegoraro (@robpegoraro) March 9, 2019

Elizabeth Warren Wants To Break Up Amazon, Google And Facebook; But Does Her Plan Make Any Sense? https://t.co/pZgt0oUrRi via @Techdirt no it doesn’t, well said!

— Josh Wetzel (@jwetzel) March 9, 2019

There are ways of criticizing Warren's proposals that make sense, but this is not one of them. While I also want alternatives and e.g. still like the idea of protocols-not-platforms, the cyberlibertarian rejection of any intervention is part of the problem https://t.co/soEcUeGe0y

— Wolfie Christl (@WolfieChristl) March 8, 2019

It's up, it's up! https://t.co/UJScLRZB5H

— Mike Masnick (@mmasnick) March 8, 2019