Elizabeth Warren wants Amazon, Facebook, other big tech firms broken up
Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren unveiled a proposal on Friday to break up the country’s biggest technology companies – which she referred to as “monopolies.”
In a blog post on Medium, the declared 2020 candidate said companies like Facebook, Amazon and Google are consolidating power and crowding out competition.
“Today’s big tech companies have too much power — too much power over our economy, our society, and our democracy,” Warren wrote. “They’ve bulldozed competition, used our private information for profit, and tilted the playing field against everyone else. And in the process, they have hurt small businesses and stifled innovation.”
Warren said nearly half of e-commerce goes through Amazon, while more than 70 percent of internet traffic goes through sites owned or operated by either Facebook or Google. Reduced levels of competition have lessened the need for these companies to compete in areas like protecting consumer privacy, Warren said.
Her proposal includes designating companies that connect people with third parties through an online platform, with global revenue of at least $25 billion, as "platform utilities." These so-called platform utilities would not be allowed to own a marketplace for commerce and participate in it.
She also proposed reversing anticompetitive mergers, like Amazon's acquisition of Whole Foods and Facebook's acquisition of Instagram.
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AMZN | AMAZON.COM INC. | 176.59 | -2.95 | -1.64% |
| FB | n.a. | n.a. | n.a. | n.a. |
| GOOGL | ALPHABET INC. | 159.13 | +0.87 | +0.55% |
Spokespeople for Amazon and Google did not return FOX Business' request for comment. Facebook declined to comment.
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Warren is expected to hold a rally in Long Island City, Queens on Friday, the city where Amazon scrapped plans to build a new headquarters after facing local opposition. The senator appeared to throw a jab at Amazon, which conducted a very public search in choosing locations for its HQ2 facilities, writing some companies have grown so powerful they can "bully" cities into "showering them with massive taxpayer handouts."
It’s not the first time the tech companies have come under scrutiny. Last year, President Trump said he was “very seriously” considering antitrust action against Amazon, Facebook and Google.
