John Oliver tackled tech monopolies and the damage they can create on “Last Week Tonight” Sunday.
At the start of his segment, Oliver pointed to the 450-page report released in 2020 by the House judiciary subcommittee on antitrust, commercial and administrative law that revealed “anti-competitive conduct” by the likes of Amazon, Apple, Google and Facebook. But this “anti-competitive” behavior is nothing new.
Oliver then discussed the U.S. government’s actions against AT&T for its anti-competitive nature 40 years ago.
For example, when MCI – “a much smaller company” at the time – attempted to offer long-distance phone services at a lower rate, AT&T wasn’t a fan. Oliver played a clip explaining the battle between the two telecoms, including the revelation of meeting notes from AT&T that revealed the company’s plans to “choke them up before they get started.”
“Obviously, fuck AT&T now and forever,” Oliver said.
Watch the segment as it dips into modern examples of tech monopolies’ behavior below:
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