Elizabeth Warren wants to break up Google, Amazon, and Facebook

3/9/19
 
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from VOX,
3/8/19:

Big tech is probably not going to love the 2020 field.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren is coming for Big Tech in a big way: calling for the breakup of Amazon, Google, and Facebook.

The Massachusetts Democrat and 2020 presidential contender laid out an ambitious plan on Friday, March 8, to promote competition and level the playing field for more companies to compete.

Warren’s proposal includes legislation that would make big tech firms “platform utilities” and bar them from owning participants on their platforms — so when you search on Google for restaurants, for example, it wouldn’t be able to prioritize its ratings over Yelp’s. Warren says she would also appoint antitrust regulators that would roll back some of the biggest tech deals in recent years. Amazon would have to give up Whole Foods, for example, and Facebook would have to drop WhatsApp and Instagram.

“I want a government that makes sure everybody — even the biggest and most powerful companies in America — plays by the rules. And I want to make sure that the next generation of great American tech companies can flourish,” Warren wrote in a Medium post announcing the plan. “To do that, we need to stop this generation of big tech companies from throwing around their political power to shape the rules in their favor and throwing around their economic power to snuff out or buy up every potential competitor.”

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