I am in the middle of reading the subject book, The Tyranny of Big Tech by Senator Josh Hawley. Since I think the book is something we all need to read, I decided to write a review. However, instead of just offering my own opinion, here is a list of alternative opinions. In part 2 of this two part series, I will offer my own observations

In New Book, Josh Hawley Takes On The Tyranny Of Big Tech (thefederalist.com)

Joe Allen provides a sympathetic review and a good description of the book.

The Tyranny of Big Tech unfolds in three parts. In the first, Hawley sketches a brief history of Gilded Age monopolies. In the second, he details the 21st century’s techno-capitalist takeover. I never thought I’d read a Republican author who’s grasped the work of tech-futurist Jaron Lanier, but Hawley’s full of surprises. The final section lays out the senator’s ambitious plan for antitrust legislation.

In New Book, Josh Hawley Takes On The Tyranny Of Big Tech (thefederalist.com)

If you want a good description of all three parts before you buy the book, read Allen’s review.

Antitrust: Hawley and Klobuchar on the big tech battles to come | Books | The Guardian

Lloyd Green‘s review is so partisan he really doesn’t tell his readers what Hawley’s book is about. Instead, we learn why he likes Senator Amy Klobuchar and thinks Hawley is a hypocrite.

On 6 January, Hawley gave a clench-fisted salute to pro-Trump militants and voted against certifying the 2020 presidential election. On the page, he doubles down.

Two weeks after the Capitol attack, Klobuchar told the presidential inauguration: “This is the day our democracy picks itself up, brushes off the dust and does what America always does.” She remains angry with Hawley and “Flyin’” Ted Cruz for the insurrection and its aftermath.

Antitrust: Hawley and Klobuchar on the big tech battles to come | Books | The Guardian

Are you are gullible enough to believe that the Capitol attack was an armed insurrection? Do you think that Liberals/Progressives are right to think that violent Black Lives Matter/Antifa riots are tolerable and the less violent January 6th rioters need to be kept in solitary confinement? Then you will like Green’s review. Allen’s review doesn’t provide much evidence he read either Hawley or Klobuchar’s books, but it is full of idiotic condemnation.

Josh Hawley’s ‘Big Tech’ Book Overthrows the Tyranny of Reality | WIRED

GILAD EDELMAN‘s review is hardly favorable, but he actually does review the content of Hawley’s book and Hawley’s policy proposals. Edelman focuses much of his review on what Hawley wrote about President Theodore Roosevelt’s battles with the robber barons of his day,

And so Hawley spends a large portion of the book recounting these historical roots. The hero of his narrative is Theodore Roosevelt, whom Hawley views as the champion of a small-r republican tradition dating back to the nation’s founding. “He believed that liberty depended on the independence of the common man and on his capacity to share in self-government,” Hawley writes. “He believed concentrations of wealth and power threatened the people’s control and thus their freedom.” Roosevelt established those bona fides by bringing a successful antitrust case against financier J. P. Morgan in 1904. But his republican vision met its tragic demise in the election of 1912, when Roosevelt lost to Democrat Woodrow Wilson, whom Hawley calls “the nation’s first prominent corporate liberal.” Where Roosevelt championed the common man, Wilson favored government by corporate aristocratic elites. Once in office, he put an end to the anti-monopoly movement, settling instead for friendly cooperation with big business. “This was the Wilsonian settlement, the triumph of corporate liberalism that would dominate America’s politics and political economy for a century and reach its apotheosis with Big Tech,” Hawley writes.

Josh Hawley’s ‘Big Tech’ Book Overthrows the Tyranny of Reality | WIRED

Edelman argues against Hawley’s interpretation of history. Edelman’s historical interpretation favors Democrats as the party of the common man and the true advocates of the anti-monopoly movement. If you want to understand some of the arguments against Hawley’s interpretation of history, Edelman’s article is a good place to start. It doesn’t hurt to look at both sides of an argument. However, you will have to have a good education in history to figure out whether Edelman or Hawley are right? As a practical matter the thing to keep in mind is that Edelman agrees Big Tech has gotten to big. His issue is who we trust to fix the problem.

Book review of The Tyranny of Big Tech by Josh Hawley – The Washington Post

Susan Benkelman’s review is unambiguously partisan, which is what one expects from The Washington Post.

Think about this bald-faced lie.

Hawley nonetheless devotes several pages to the claim, presumably because it so conveniently supports his premise that the companies are trying to suppress conservative voices. “Big Tech was more than a group of monopolies; it was a movement, just as the corporatists of the Gilded Age had represented a movement to change American life,” he writes.

The claim that the platforms are censoring conservative voices, though, is an unfounded one, researchers from New York University concluded in a study released in February.

And decisions by the companies about what user posts to allow and what to take down are complex. In content moderation, some calls, like disallowing posts involving violence or pornography, are easy. Others, like where to draw the line on misinformation, are harder. Another piece of this puzzle is whether the government should be dictating when and how private companies enforce their terms of service. Does it even want to?

Book review of The Tyranny of Big Tech by Josh Hawley – The Washington Post

The disdain that Liberal publications have for Conservatives requires them to censor Conservatives and then lie about it, but we all know that Big Tech is partisan. Apparently, Liberal/Progressives maintain the lie for legal reasons.

You want an example of The Washington Post’s objectivity? Read The media can be glad for the Biden White House’s return to normalcy. But let’s not be lulled. – The Washington Post.

That silly column begins by telling us how much better the Biden administration was supposed to be. We would supposedly see more truth and transparency. Meanwhile, our objective news media is not covering stories like this one, Secret Recordings Reveal Officials Discussing ‘Filthy’ Conditions of 4,632 Immigrant Kids Held in Texas Tent Camp – Reason.com, stories that might embarrass the Biden administration.

Think about the lies papers like The Washington Post told about the Trump administration.

• Trump: Media ‘Now Admitting I Was Right About Everything They Lied About’ | The Daily Caller
• Trump releases list of claims he says he got right and media missed: ‘Right about everything before election’ | Washington Examiner
• (READ) Donald Trump statement: I was right all along | Sharyl Attkisson
• How Five Media Lies Won Biden the White House by Larry O’Connor (townhall.com)

So, what’s next?

Well, first I have to finish reading Hawley’s book.