(cid:36)(cid:73)(cid:66)(cid:78)(cid:81)(cid:74)(cid:80)(cid:79)(cid:1)(cid:35)(cid:83)(cid:74)(cid:70)(cid:71)(cid:84) (cid:43)(cid:86)(cid:79)(cid:70)(cid:1)(cid:19)(cid:17)(cid:18)(cid:26) (cid:49)(cid:86)(cid:67)(cid:77)(cid:74)(cid:68)(cid:1)(cid:39)(cid:80)(cid:83)(cid:86)(cid:78)(cid:1)(cid:35)(cid:83)(cid:74)(cid:70)(cid:71) (cid:51)(cid:70)(cid:84)(cid:80)(cid:77)(cid:87)(cid:70)(cid:69)(cid:27)(cid:1)(cid:53)(cid:73)(cid:70)(cid:1)(cid:54)(cid:79)(cid:74)(cid:85)(cid:70)(cid:69)(cid:1)(cid:52)(cid:85)(cid:66)(cid:85)(cid:70)(cid:84)(cid:1) (cid:71)(cid:70)(cid:69)(cid:70)(cid:83)(cid:66)(cid:77)(cid:1)(cid:72)(cid:80)(cid:87)(cid:70)(cid:83)(cid:79)(cid:78)(cid:70)(cid:79)(cid:85)(cid:1)(cid:84)(cid:73)(cid:80)(cid:86)(cid:77)(cid:69)(cid:1) (cid:70)(cid:79)(cid:71)(cid:80)(cid:83)(cid:68)(cid:70)(cid:1)(cid:66)(cid:79)(cid:85)(cid:74)(cid:85)(cid:83)(cid:86)(cid:84)(cid:85)(cid:1)(cid:83)(cid:70)(cid:72)(cid:86)(cid:77)(cid:66)(cid:85)(cid:74)(cid:80)(cid:79)(cid:84)(cid:1) (cid:80)(cid:79)(cid:1)(cid:85)(cid:70)(cid:68)(cid:73)(cid:79)(cid:80)(cid:77)(cid:80)(cid:72)(cid:90)(cid:1)(cid:72)(cid:74)(cid:66)(cid:79)(cid:85)(cid:84)(cid:15) Copyright 2019 by Champion Briefs, LLC All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by an information storage or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner and the publisher. The Evidence Standard June 2019 The Evidence Standard Speech and Debate provides a meaningful and educational experience to all who are involved. We, as educators in the community, believe that it is our responsibility to provide resources that uphold the foundation of the Speech and Debate activity. Champion Briefs, its employees, managers, and associates take an oath to uphold the following Evidence Standard: 1. We will never falsify facts, opinions, dissents, or any other information. 2. We will never knowingly distribute information that has been proven to be inaccurate, even if the source of the information is legitimate. 3. We will actively fight the dissemination of false information and will provide the community with clarity if we learn that a third-party has attempted to commit deception. 4. We will never support or distribute studies, news articles, or other materials that use inaccurate methodologies to reach a conclusion or prove a point. 5. We will provide meaningful clarification to any who question the legitimacy of information distributed by ourselves or by any third-party. 6. We will actively contribute to students’ understanding of the world by using evidence from a multitude of perspectives and schools of thought. 7. We will, within our power, assist the community as a whole in its mission to achieve the goals and vision of this activity. These seven statements, while simple, represent the complex notion of what it means to advance students’ understanding of the world around them, as is the purpose of educators. Champion Briefs 4 Letter from the Editor June 2019 Letter from the Editor The National Speech and Debate Association’s National Tournament is one of the hardest but most rewarding tournaments in all of speech and debate. You’ll be challenged by an incredible diversity of styles, judging, and argumentation across the weeklong tournament this June. Nationals for many will also be their last tournament, making it an especially sentimental competition. With that in mind, I wish you the best of luck debating the resolution, “Resolved: The United States federal government should enforce antitrust regulations on technology giants.” This resolution is both timely and exciting given the role of tech regulation in the upcoming 2020 election cycle. I personally am a huge fan of this topic, and I’m sure all of you will have fun researching about the tech industry and antitrust laws on the last resolution of the year. The tech industry has exploded in size in an incredibly short period of time. As a result, regulations have lagged behind as legislators have struggled to keep up with the incredible pace of innovation in technology. Today, companies like Apple, Amazon, and Alphabet are worth trillions of dollars yet they still have yet to face any penalties for interfering with the free market. Smaller firms have been driven out of the industry, and consumers are concerned that tech companies have far too much control over pricing and privacy. Virtually all consumers in 2019 are in the market for new technology, meaning that this resolution has the potential to affect every single American. This topic will require you to compare and contrast the relative value of economic growth and freedom against the rights and interests of consumers and smaller businesses. Antitrust regulation requires intervention and often penalties against monopolistic companies, which many believe would undermine their ability to continue to grow and prosper. On the other hand, one must ask whether the costs of growth outweigh the risks of big tech. As always, I’ve truly enjoyed putting this brief together for you – for the last time in the 2018-2019 debate season, I will remind you to do your own research, and enjoy the last tournament of the year. Michael Norton Editor-in-Chief Champion Briefs 5 Table of Contents June 2019 Table of Contents The Evidence Standard ....................................................................... 4 Letter from the Editor ......................................................................... 5 Table of Contents ............................................................................... 6 Topic Analyses .................................................................................... 8 Topic Analysis by Jakob Urda ......................................................................................................................... 9 Topic Analysis by Belén Mella ..................................................................................................................... 18 Topic Analysis by Michael Norton ............................................................................................................. 26 General Information ......................................................................... 34 Pro Arguments with Con Responses ................................................. 46 PRO: Current Laws are Not Enforced ....................................................................................................... 47 A/2: Current Laws are Not Enforced .................................................................................................... 50 PRO: Mergers and Acquisitions ................................................................................................................... 54 A/2: Mergers and Acquisitions ............................................................................................................... 57 PRO: Small Business ......................................................................................................................................... 59 A/2: Small Business ..................................................................................................................................... 62 PRO: Competition Leads to Innovation .................................................................................................... 64 A/2: Competition Leads to Innovation ................................................................................................ 67 PRO: Technology giants are violating the Clayton Act ...................................................................... 71 A/2: Technology giants are violating the Clayton Act ................................................................... 74 PRO: Congressional Regulations Fail ........................................................................................................ 78 A/2: Congressional Regulation Fails .................................................................................................... 81 PRO: Technology Giants Sell Your Information ................................................................................... 83 A/2: Technology Giants Sell Your Information ................................................................................ 86 PRO: Tech Companies charge unfair prices ........................................................................................... 89 A/2: Tech Companies charge unfair prices ........................................................................................ 92 PRO: Privacy Violations .................................................................................................................................. 94 A/2: Privacy Violations ............................................................................................................................... 98 PRO: Technology Are Violating the Sherman Act ............................................................................. 100 A/2: Technology Giants are Violating the Sherman Act ............................................................ 103 PRO: Fair Wages .............................................................................................................................................. 107 A/2: Fair Wages .......................................................................................................................................... 110 PRO: Monopolization breeds inequality ............................................................................................... 112 A/2: Monopolization breeds inequality ........................................................................................... 118 PRO: Regulation cripples monopolization ......................................................................................... 123 Champion Briefs 6 Table of Contents June 2019 A/2: Regulation cripples monopolization ....................................................................................... 128 PRO: Big Data Creates Dominance in Markets ................................................................................ 133 A/2: Big Data Creates Dominance in Market ................................................................................. 138 PRO: Market Power Leads to Decreased Privacy ............................................................................ 143 A/2: Market Power Leads to Decreased Privacy .......................................................................... 150 Con Arguments with Pro Responses ............................................... 155 CON: Federal antitrust enforcement is inefficient ........................................................................... 156 A/2: Federal antitrust enforcement is inefficient ........................................................................ 160 CON: Federal antitrust enforcement weakens A.I. ........................................................................... 163 A/2: Federal antitrust enforcement weakens A.I. ........................................................................ 171 CON: Federal antitrust laws are out of date ........................................................................................ 175 A/2: Federal antitrust laws are out of date ................................................................................... 180 CON: Tech Giants are not violating antitrust laws ........................................................................... 184 A/2: Tech Giants are not violating antitrust laws ........................................................................ 188 CON: Lobbying backlash .............................................................................................................................. 192 A/2: Lobbying backlash ........................................................................................................................... 195 CON: Antitrust laws are costly ................................................................................................................. 197 A/2: Antitrust laws are costly ............................................................................................................... 200 CON: Antitrust laws trade off with taxes on wealthy ...................................................................... 204 A/2: Antitrust laws trade off with taxes on wealthy .................................................................. 208 CON: Antitrust laws harm American jobs ............................................................................................ 212 A/2: Antitrust laws harm American jobs ......................................................................................... 215 CON: Antitrust laws harm tech philanthropy efforts ...................................................................... 219 A/2: Antitrust laws harm tech philanthropy efforts ................................................................. 222 CON: Antitrust Laws harm tech innovation ........................................................................................ 226 A/2: Antitrust Laws harm tech innovation ..................................................................................... 230 CON: US Tech Dominance ........................................................................................................................... 234 A/2: US Tech Dominance ........................................................................................................................ 237 CON: Higher Wages ....................................................................................................................................... 240 A/2: Higher Wages .................................................................................................................................... 243 CON: Tech giants aren’t creating any barriers to entry ................................................................. 245 A/2: Tech giants aren’t creating any barriers to entry .............................................................. 249 CON: The new FTC task force is ineffective ........................................................................................ 253 A/2: The new FTC task force is ineffective ..................................................................................... 257 CON: Antitrust laws have been used for political ends .................................................................. 261 A/2: Antitrust laws have been used for political ends ............................................................... 265 Champion Briefs 7 (cid:36)(cid:73)(cid:66)(cid:78)(cid:81)(cid:74)(cid:80)(cid:79)(cid:1)(cid:35)(cid:83)(cid:74)(cid:70)(cid:71)(cid:84) (cid:43)(cid:86)(cid:79)(cid:70)(cid:1)(cid:19)(cid:17)(cid:18)(cid:26) (cid:49)(cid:86)(cid:67)(cid:77)(cid:74)(cid:68)(cid:1)(cid:39)(cid:80)(cid:83)(cid:86)(cid:78)(cid:1)(cid:35)(cid:83)(cid:74)(cid:70)(cid:71) (cid:53)(cid:80)(cid:81)(cid:74)(cid:68)(cid:1)(cid:34)(cid:79)(cid:66)(cid:77)(cid:90)(cid:84)(cid:70)(cid:84) Topic Analysis by Jakob Urda June 2019 Topic Analysis by Jakob Urda Resolved: The United States federal government should enforce antitrust regulations on technology giants. Introduction With the 2020 election season picking up steam, it is not surprising that the NSDA picked such a hot button political issue for the final topic of the year. Tech regulation is a major flashpoint in American politics, and represents a largely uncharted area of public policy creation. In many of the more technical policy topics of the past, there have been a series of well-defined advocacies which roughly map onto the camps that support or oppose the resolution. Tech regulation, by contrast, is still very much the wild west of policymaking. No one has a clear sense of what enforcement of antitrust regulations would look like. Would America break up big tech as we did big oil during the early 20th century? Would we levy fines against monopolistic behavior? Would we prevent mergers and acquisitions as we do with many industries? The possibilities are legion, which makes the ground of this debate so interesting and vast. Everything from economics to law to national security to social justice is fair game. We must think about what the role of government is and what the practical implications of realistic policy are. All in all, June is set to be a very interesting month for debates. As many presidential candidates struggle to figure out their personal stances on tech regulation, debaters will be forced to act as pathfinders in this new and emerging debate about the future of our economic organization. Champion Briefs 9 Topic Analysis by Jakob Urda June 2019 Tournament Considerations June is the last month of the year, and the tournament which occupies everyone’s’ mind is NSDA nationals. Nationals is one of the most prestigious tournaments of the year, and functions as a capstone for the many different teams which aspire to be the best in the country. The stakes feel incredibly high, and for many graduating seniors it will be their last experience in competitive debate. Nationals has an incredibly diverse pool of teams and judges, and debaters should prepare accordingly. One important fact is that all rounds have multiple judges. This dampens the variance associated with having single random judging, because each individual voice matters a little less for the overall ballot count. The important thing to remember is that nationals deeply favor arguments which are broad-based and accessible. Two factors make it this way: First, having multiple judges places a premium on arguments which are appealing to a wide swatch of backgrounds. It is more difficult to tailor one’s points to a specific style when there are multiple judges in the room. The best bet is to craft arguments that are appealing to a wide swatch of the population and are unlikely to alienate people. The second reason broadly popular arguments are favored is the wide spread of judges at nationals. The way that Nationals draws its competitor pool ensures that there will be contestants and judges from all over the country, even places which are not ordinarily visible on the national circuit. This means that there will be far more judges with different attitudes about debate and different political and social sentiments than from your Champion Briefs 10