After much criticism of the biggest technology firms, such as Google, Facebook, Apple and Amazon for alleged prevention of competition in their fields, the Justice Department has commenced a huge antitrust review.
Attorney General William Barr is spearheading the effort, which is expected to penetrate more deeply into the companies’ practices than the intentions of the Federal Trade Commission. Justice Department antitrust chief Makan Delrahim stated, “Without the discipline of meaningful market-based competition, digital platforms may act in ways that are not responsive to consumer demands. The department’s antitrust review will explore these important issues.”
In late June, President Trump accusedsocial media companies like Google and Twitter of attempting to “rig the election” and suggested they should be sued, saying, “I tell you what, they should be sued, because what’s happening with the bias— and now you see it, with that executive yesterday from Google, the hatred for the Republicans. It’s not even like, ‘Gee, let’s lean Democrat.’ The hatred! And actually, you know, I heard that all during my election. It’s hard that I won. They were swamping us with negative stuff.”
Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo stated, “These companies have an enormous amount of power if they can even stop the president of the free world from getting his message out.”
