There are very few issues with the power to transcend partisan politics in Washington — and even fewer with the power to fracture parties and make b

Amy Klobuchar leads her final assault on Big Tech’s power

submited by
Style Pass
2022-01-27 18:00:08

There are very few issues with the power to transcend partisan politics in Washington — and even fewer with the power to fracture parties and make bedfellows of Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Josh Hawley (R-MO). In an interview with The Verge on Tuesday, Klobuchar described how reigning in Big Tech has done just that.

Over President Joe Biden’s first year in office, bipartisan grief over Big Tech’s stranglehold on markets simmered beneath a surface tension of factional back-and-forths on issues like coronavirus aid and infrastructure funding. While wonky discussions over antitrust reform may have easily gotten lost in the noise of other Democratic priorities, Klobuchar pressed forward, introducing a handful of bills capitalizing on a broad congressional consensus that the Amazons, Facebooks, and Googles of the tech industry had grown into “monopolies” that could exclude competitors and allow for platforms to set their own standards for the internet.

Klobuchar’s campaign paid off on the morning of January 20th, only days after the Biden administration announced new initiatives to rein in corporate power across industries, including tech. The Senate Judiciary Committee approved her “American Innovation and Choice Online Act” that afternoon, setting it up for final consideration on the floor. If enacted, the bill would ban dominant platforms, like Facebook and Google, from favoring their own products and services over those of their competitors. On top of this measure, another Klobuchar bill, which would provide more funding for the Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission through larger merger filing fees, is set to receive final approval in the House next month, she said.

Leave a Comment