A new bipartisan effort in Congress is aimed at reining in the power of big tech monopolies. A group of lawmakers on the House Judiciary Committee have introduced a package of five bills targeting tech giants like Google, Facebook and Amazon. Rather than focus on speech and content regulation, these bills center on anti-trust issues, competition, and market power. One of the bills would force large companies like Amazon to break up into two if their business "gives rise to an irreconcilable conflict of interest."
Republicans on Capitol Hill have been targeting Big Tech for months, with bills like Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley's Bust Up Big Tech Act. But because this package is co-sponsored by Republicans and Democrats, it has a greater chance of getting a hearing and passing in a Democrat-controlled Congress.
Allum Bokhari, author and tech correspondent for Breitbart, told KTRH in a recent interview that Big Tech is completely out of control. "It is incredibly ridiculous that these companies can suspend the President of the United States, they can essentially boot a site off the Internet, and they can manipulate search data...it goes against all notions of democratic fairness," he says. "It's clear to everyone I think that these tech companies have far too much power over political discourse."
Bokhari also believes there are legitimate anti-trust concerns with these companies. "The source of their dominance is the vast amount of data that they have on every single person, and that their competitors don't have similar amounts of data," he says. "Which is what prevents a site like Duck Duck Go from competing with Google."
While Republicans have made a lot of noise about Big Tech, their supporters are anxious for action. "Grassroots conservatives have really borne the brunt of Big Tech censorship thus far, so this is a top issue for Republican voters," says Bokhari.