How Judiciary should handle today's Big Tech hearing - American Thinker
With the demrats running the show not much will come it.
It's become a fact of modern American politics that Republicans and Democrats agree on virtually nothing, with the House of Representatives serving as the epicenter of the partisan divide. But Congress will bridge that divide this week as members of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial, and Administrative Law discuss legislative solutions to address Big Tech's arguably unchecked market power today, Feb. 25.
After spending 16 months investigating the state of competition in the digital economy, the committee released a 450-page report in the run-up to the hearing outlining a long list of evidence that Google, Apple, Amazon, and Facebook have knowingly exploited their monopoly statuses in an array of anti-competitive ways.
The findings of Judiciary's investigation should prompt the subcommittee to agree to a serious governmental overhaul of tech oversight to ensure future compliance and industry prosperity.
At the very least, Congress needs to reassert its authority to regulate monopolies.
Committee leadership must discuss how the Sherman and Clayton Acts, the congressional blueprints for monopoly prevention, are outdated and have fallen under self-inflicted restraint. They simply haven't kept up with the times and have led to increased market concentration in the digital square that's harmed businesses and consumers alike.
One area of consideration for members to target could include reforming Section 7 of the Clayton Act. It currently prohibits mergers and acquisitions that "substantially lessen competition, or ... tend to create a monopoly." Many believe that it should also address policy concerns like vertical mergers (when two companies merge to control the supply chain), which has arguably led the four targeted tech giants to obtain an unhealthy level of power.
This concern about vertical integration is exactly why Americans for Limited Government cheered on the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice for trying to prevent the merger between AT&T and Time Warner. While a federal judge held in favor of the merger, it's now up to Congress to address the dangers of corporate power accumulation and subsequent market manipulation through vertical integration.
It's well documented that conglomerates use acquisitions to eliminate competition and grow their market control. As highlighted by the Judiciary Committee's Big Tech report, moves like Facebook's purchase of Instagram and WhatsApp eliminated social media alternatives that threatened to curtail its dominance in the online advertising industry. It also suggested that Google's YouTube and Android acquisitions are examples of vertical mergers that have allowed the company to move into new markets and ultimately centralize power of user data.
With the demrats running the show not much will come it.
It's become a fact of modern American politics that Republicans and Democrats agree on virtually nothing, with the House of Representatives serving as the epicenter of the partisan divide. But Congress will bridge that divide this week as members of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial, and Administrative Law discuss legislative solutions to address Big Tech's arguably unchecked market power today, Feb. 25.
After spending 16 months investigating the state of competition in the digital economy, the committee released a 450-page report in the run-up to the hearing outlining a long list of evidence that Google, Apple, Amazon, and Facebook have knowingly exploited their monopoly statuses in an array of anti-competitive ways.
The findings of Judiciary's investigation should prompt the subcommittee to agree to a serious governmental overhaul of tech oversight to ensure future compliance and industry prosperity.
At the very least, Congress needs to reassert its authority to regulate monopolies.
Committee leadership must discuss how the Sherman and Clayton Acts, the congressional blueprints for monopoly prevention, are outdated and have fallen under self-inflicted restraint. They simply haven't kept up with the times and have led to increased market concentration in the digital square that's harmed businesses and consumers alike.
One area of consideration for members to target could include reforming Section 7 of the Clayton Act. It currently prohibits mergers and acquisitions that "substantially lessen competition, or ... tend to create a monopoly." Many believe that it should also address policy concerns like vertical mergers (when two companies merge to control the supply chain), which has arguably led the four targeted tech giants to obtain an unhealthy level of power.
This concern about vertical integration is exactly why Americans for Limited Government cheered on the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice for trying to prevent the merger between AT&T and Time Warner. While a federal judge held in favor of the merger, it's now up to Congress to address the dangers of corporate power accumulation and subsequent market manipulation through vertical integration.
It's well documented that conglomerates use acquisitions to eliminate competition and grow their market control. As highlighted by the Judiciary Committee's Big Tech report, moves like Facebook's purchase of Instagram and WhatsApp eliminated social media alternatives that threatened to curtail its dominance in the online advertising industry. It also suggested that Google's YouTube and Android acquisitions are examples of vertical mergers that have allowed the company to move into new markets and ultimately centralize power of user data.
