Around the Net

Meet The "New Villains" Of New Media

Tell News Corp. and Microsoft to take a number. TheWrap.com has christened Apple, Google, and Facebook as "the new villains of new media." Shedding their status as "white nights," these three tech giants are beginning to behave like the multi-billion-dollar corporations they are, and, as a result, their images are taking a "shellacking." As tech writer Nicholas Carr tells The Wrap: "These companies have wrapped themselves in a lot of the idealism surrounding the web, but their business realities are beginning to be in conflict with the rhetoric they use to promote themselves." Following the glitch-riddled iPhone 4 launch, Apple's Steve Jobs seems to have cemented his reputation as a combative control freak on par with Bill Gates (remember that little antitrust case).

Though we're between revolts at the moment, Facebook remains a lightning rod for consumer privacy concerns. Meanwhile, Google, which has faced its share of monopolistic and Orwellian accusations, is now being portrayed as a net neutrality killer thanks to a recent partnership with Verizon. As The Wrap notes, however: "So far, of course, the fallout has remained one of perception, not sales figures or stock price." That goes for all three "new villains." The point at which that changes is when things will really get interesting.

Read the whole story at TheWrap.com »

Next story loading loading..