Have Facebook and Google cornered the market on antitrust troubles? – Reason Magazine

Just one week of antitrust litigation news shows how much legal turbulence Facebook and Google are facing. Michael Weiner gives us a remarkably compact summary of those issues, from the deeply historical (Facebook’s purchase of Instagram) to the cutting edge of tech (complaints about Oculus self-preferencing). In all, he brings us current on two state AG case, two FTC cases, and one DOJ case against the twin giants of surveillance advertising. Speaking of litigation, no major new technology has been greeted with more litigation in its infancy than face recognition. So this week we do a long interview with Hoan Ton-That, the CEO of what must be the most controversial tech startup in decades, Clearview AI. We probe deeply into face recognition’s reputation for race and gender bias, and what the company is doing about it. Hoan offers a clear rebuttal to misconceptions about the technology; he is clearly taking the controversy in stride and confident that the technology will overcome efforts to turn it toxic. Meanwhile, I note, the debate is clearing out what would have been formidable competition from the likes of Microsoft, Amazon, and IBM.  If you think face recognition should be banned as racist, sexist, and…
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