"Flimsy and corrupt authoritarian populism is dedicated to pretending that the oligarchs and autocrats really care about the people. One way Trumpism has done this is by pretending they actually care about reining in corporate power. That's included an elaborate, multi-year performance about how MAGA Republicans were going to curb abuses by "big tech" and bring back meaningful antitrust reform."
"As we've warned and witnessed repeatedly, that's always a lie. The Trump administration has relentlessly dedicated his second administration to devastating whatever was left of regulatory autonomy, consumer protection, and antitrust reform. If MAGA is taking aim at a company it's almost always either to harass them for doing something Trump doesn't like, or to help benefit a billionaire ally."
"Ken's latest gambit is a new lawsuit against against Netflix for... monetizing streaming advertising viewer data and creating "addicted" users: "Netflix's years-long bait-and-switch has led the company right to where it promised never to be: addicting children and families to its platform, mining those users for data, and then converting that data into lucrative intelligence for global advertising juggernauts.""
"Granted Netflix is not unique here. In a country too corrupt to pass meaningful privacy laws (because MAGA Republicans just like Ken routinely work to kill them), nearly every company you interact with on a daily basis now monetizes your every movement and online choices, " anonymizes" it (a meaningless term), sells access to dodgy international data brokers, then repeatedly lies about it."
MAGA populism portrays oligarchs and autocrats as caring about people while using claims of antitrust reform to mask its goals. The second Trump administration has weakened regulatory autonomy, consumer protection, and antitrust efforts. When MAGA targets a company, it often serves to harass it for actions Trump dislikes or to benefit a billionaire ally. Texas AG Ken Paxton exemplifies this pattern with a lawsuit against Netflix over monetizing streaming advertising viewer data and allegedly creating “addicted” users. The piece argues that Netflix is not unique because many companies monetize user behavior, “anonymize” data, sell access to data brokers, and mislead the public. It attributes the lack of meaningful privacy laws to political efforts by Republicans, corporate lobbyists, and some Democrats to dismantle privacy protections.
Read at Above the Law
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