The House antitrust subcommittee will probably publish their report on Amazon, Alphabet (Google), Apple and Facebook this week.
The draft response’s authenticity, first reported by Politico, was confirmed by Buck, a representative. Buck shared concerns from the Democratic side about Big Tech firms’ power and how they tend to execute ‘killer acquisitions’ meant to eliminate competitors.
The companies are also self-preferencing by leading customers to other products that the companies own.
Buck, however, is not on-board with the plan to delineate a single line of business. Facebook owns Instagram and WhatsApp, Google owns companies like YouTube, Android, and others under the Alphabet Umbrella, and Amazon has a massive cloud computing arm.
A call to break up
Buck writes that the proposal is a thinly veiled call to break up the Big Tech firms. But Buck’s side does not agree with the majority’s approach.
It is not immediately clear how many Republicans will support the report, led by the Democratic Chairman David Cicilline. When reports have bipartisan support, their impact tends to lead to something.
Buck continues to say that the report is a chilling look at how the Big Tech firms have used their power to control how the public sees and understands the world.
Dramatic effect
Buck does not disagree with all of the report’s recommendations. He agrees with portions like making it easier for the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission to stop mergers by lowering the Burden of Proof requirements.
He also is for allowing consumers to control their data through portability and interoperability between the platforms.
The potential changes have to be dramatic to have an effect; he continues to say. Buck also said that he is not happy that the report failed to address allegations by conservatives that some of these platforms have made attempts to silence conservative voices.
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