[amb23]

> Google said it was willing to ‘work with’ Turkey, but as a partner and not as a corporation working within a sovereign nation. It simply said it doesn’t like Turkey’s law, and so it will stop providing Android phones for an entire country. In other words, Google has a private sanctions regime against smaller countries.

The fact that Google even has the leverage to blackout an entire country like this--and that it's legally allowed to do so--is the best reason I've seen so far to break up Big Tech. They're playing with fire and undermining the U.S. diplomatic community by mixing public and private interests in a way that supersedes national policy. Both Android and Chrome need to be spun out--at this point they are basically public utilities.

[bilekas]

> -and that it's legally allowed to do so--is the best reason I've seen so far to break up Big Tech.

Of course it is legal.. Nobody can tell a company who they HAVE to sell their product to.. But you want to break it up and what then exactly.. ?

> Both Android and Chrome need to be spun out--at this point they are basically public utilities

No, they're not.. And they're not a fundamental right either.

[jessaustin]

Nobody can tell a company who they HAVE to sell their product to.

Lots of court cases have forced merchants to sell to minorities to whom they would rather have not sold.

[bilekas]

Could you share on some references to products and not services forced to be sold ?

Also policy based and not discriminatory based..

[techntoke]

Chromium is already open source.

[bilekas]

Technically so is Android but thats a whole other can of worms..

[anoncake]

> Nobody can tell a company who they HAVE to sell their product to..

Of course the state can do that.

[mrkstu]

Turkey can if Google wants to do business in Turkey- if it isn't a legal business entity in Turkey, then no, not really.

[sercand]

Google has a legal business entity in Turkey.

[mrkstu]

For now- but if Turkey gets snippy back w/Google and tries to force the issue, that entity will simply cease to exist.

[throwaway0237]

> Both Android and Chrome need to be spun out--at this point they are basically public utilities.

And then what: future development paid for by taxes, done by public servants who can't be fired? A House Committee on Chrome's WhatWG standards compliance?

[rjmunro]

Public servants normally can be fired by elected officials. Elected officials can be "fired" by the people, albeit only once every 4 years.

Perhaps spun into some sort of not-for-profit, like Firefox. It's a difficult problem. Most options seem bad, but the current situation is bad too.

[pdonis]

> Public servants normally can be fired by elected officials.

No, they can't. There are extensive laws, rules, and regulations that prevent elected officials from firing government employees arbitrarily.

> Elected officials can be "fired" by the people, albeit only once every 4 years.

Every 2 years for the House of Representatives, every 6 years for Senators. But that almost never happens; the US Congress has incumbent re-election rates well above 90 percent. US Presidents are limited to two terms, so every so often we are forced to choose a new one.