Like a prosecutor skillfully laying out a case, Wu explains how platforms like Amazon, Google, and Meta use their market power and stickiness to exploit people’s habits and laziness. Ultimately, platforms extract their users’ money–through higher prices as well as fees and taxes levied at developers who use the platforms for commerce. The book poses a question regarding business empires: “How can their power be balanced to ensure broad prosperity for everyone?” Wu’s answer in part reverts to history—how regulators tamed AT&T, IBM, and others, and how technological advances like the internet reshuffled the deck and enabled new players to enter the market.
pairs great with the other post on the open letter to amazon I just noted. The fact is America has a history of curtailing the worse forms of capitalism (see meat packing, telecom monopoly, banking) and providing clear business rules that still allow for prosperous citizens and corporations.
Again I don’t have the answer. But I think it’s looking at why can’t there be a paid version of Facebook/Instagram that is ad free and chronological only. No Algorithmic feeds. I’m not asking for a free platform experience, I’m asking for the opportunity to buy back my privacy.
Quote Citation: Steven Levy, “Welcome to Big Tech’s ‘Age of Extraction’ | WIRED”, 2025-11-07, https://www.wired.com/story/tim-wu-age-of-extraction/