2019年经济学人 如何打破大型科技公司的垄断(6)

 

Given all these hurdles¹, will break-ups ever happen? Sector-wide divestitures seem unlikely, but even Makan Delrahim, head of the Department of Justice’s antitrust division, said on October 22nd that they are “perfectly on the table”. Amazon looks vulnerable. It is disrupting many industries and creating many enemies. A line-of-business prohibition³ seems a relatively⁴ easy sell politically. The most likely victim is Facebook. Privacy scandals and its role in distributing misinformation have made the firm a target for both Democrats⁵ and Republicans.

考虑到所有这些障碍，分裂还会发生吗？全行业范围内的资产剥离似乎不太可能，但就连美国司法部反垄断部门的负责人马坎?德尔拉希姆也在10月22日表示，“完全可以考虑”。亚马逊看上去相当脆弱。它扰乱了许多行业，树敌众多。在政治上，禁止某些行业似乎相对容易。最有可能的受害者是Facebook。隐私丑闻和它在传播错误信息方面的角色使该公司成为民主党和共和党的攻击目标。

The case against Facebook is relatively easy to make. Scott Hemphill and Tim Wu, two legal scholars based in New York, have already started advancing it. Backed up by Chris Hughes, a co-founder of Facebook now turned critic of the firm, they have been giving presentations to regulators explaining that “available evidence indicates that as of 2010, Facebook launched a programme of serial⁶ defensive⁷ acquisitions in order to maintain its dominance.”

针对Facebook的案例相对容易处理。斯科特?亨菲尔和蒂姆?吴是纽约的两名法律学者，他们已经开始推进这一计划。在Facebook联合创始人克里斯?休斯的支持下，他们向监管机构提交了报告，解释称“现有证据表明，自2010年起，Facebook启动了一系列防御性收购计划，以保持其主导地位。”

Legal arguments notwithstanding, it will be hard to unscramble the eggs. WhatsApp is still a separate entity⁸ but Instagram is not. It uses the same advertising⁹ platform as Facebook’s social network. And the firm is busy tying its biggest services together even more tightly by merging¹⁰ their address books. Facebook subscribers will at some point be able to send messages on WhatsApp. The goal, the firm says, is to make life easier for users. Critics argue that the aim is to make divestiture² more difficult. To avoid “irreparable harm”, Messrs Hemphill and Wu call on regulators to ask for a preliminary injunction that would put an end to the integration¹¹ work.

尽管存在法律上的争议，但要解读这些鸡蛋是很困难的。WhatsApp仍然是一个独立的实体，但Instagram不是。它使用与Facebook的社交网络相同的广告平台。该公司正忙着通过合并他们的地址簿将其最大的服务更紧密地捆绑在一起。Facebook的用户有朝一日将能够在WhatsApp上发送信息。该公司表示，其目标是让用户的生活更轻松。批评者认为，这样做的目的是让资产剥离变得更加困难。为了避免“不可挽回的伤害”，亨菲尔和吴呼吁监管机构申请初步禁令，终止整合工作。

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s boss, knows that he has a target on his back. If Ms Warren were elected president, he recently told staff, “then I would bet that we will have a legal challenge.” He would also bet that he would win, he added. Mr Zuckerberg may want to read up on the history of Standard Oil. Rockefeller thought so too— until it was too late.

Facebook的老板马克·扎克伯格知道自己背后有目标。他最近告诉员工，如果沃伦当选总统，“那么我敢打赌，我们将面临法律挑战。” 他还说，他还会赌自己会赢。扎克伯格可能想了解一下标准石油公司的历史。洛克菲勒也这么认为，但为时已晚。

1 hurdles   

n.障碍( hurdle的名词复数 )；跳栏；（供人或马跳跃的）栏架；跨栏赛

参考例句：

• In starting a new company, many hurdles must be crossed. 刚开办一个公司时，必须克服许多障碍。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• There are several hurdles to be got over in this project. 在这项工程中有一些困难要克服。 来自辞典例句

2 divestiture   

n.剥夺

参考例句：

• The court found divestiture to be necessary in preventing a monopoly.法庭发现在防止垄断方面进行资产剥离是必要的。
• Rapid progress was made in the divestiture of radio paging assets from the P & T sectors and the restructuring on a nationwide basis.全国邮电无线寻呼资产剥离、改制重组工作取得了较大进展。

3 prohibition   

n.禁止；禁令，禁律

参考例句：

• The prohibition against drunken driving will save many lives.禁止酒后开车将会减少许多死亡事故。
• They voted in favour of the prohibition of smoking in public areas.他们投票赞成禁止在公共场所吸烟。

4 relatively   

adv.比较...地，相对地

参考例句：

• The rabbit is a relatively recent introduction in Australia.兔子是相对较新引入澳大利亚的物种。
• The operation was relatively painless.手术相对来说不痛。

5 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 serial   

n.连本影片，连本电视节目；adj.连续的

参考例句：

• A new serial is starting on television tonight.今晚电视开播一部新的电视连续剧。
• Can you account for the serial failures in our experiment?你能解释我们实验屡屡失败的原因吗？

7 defensive   

adj.防御的；防卫的；防守的

参考例句：

• Their questions about the money put her on the defensive.他们问到钱的问题，使她警觉起来。
• The Government hastily organized defensive measures against the raids.政府急忙布置了防卫措施抵御空袭。

8 entity   

n.实体，独立存在体，实际存在物

参考例句：

• The country is no longer one political entity.这个国家不再是一个统一的政治实体了。
• As a separate legal entity,the corporation must pay taxes.作为一个独立的法律实体，公司必须纳税。

9 advertising   

n.广告业；广告活动 a.广告的；广告业务的

参考例句：

• Can you give me any advice on getting into advertising? 你能指点我如何涉足广告业吗?
• The advertising campaign is aimed primarily at young people. 这个广告宣传运动主要是针对年轻人的。

10 merging   

合并（分类）

参考例句：

• Many companies continued to grow by merging with or buying competing firms. 许多公司通过合并或收买竞争对手的公司而不断扩大。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件
• To sequence by repeated splitting and merging. 用反复分开和合并的方法进行的排序。

11 integration   

n.一体化，联合，结合

参考例句：

• We are working to bring about closer political integration in the EU.我们正在努力实现欧盟內部更加紧密的政治一体化。
• This was the greatest event in the annals of European integration.这是欧洲统一史上最重大的事件。