US drafts order to crack down on Google, FB
The White House has drafted an executive order for President Donald Trump’s signature that would instruct federal antitrust and law enforcement agencies to open investigations into the business practices of Alphabet Inc.’s Google, Facebook Inc. and other social media companies.
The order is in its preliminary stages and hasn’t yet been run past other government agencies, according to a White House official. Bloomberg News obtained a draft of the order.
The document instructs U.S. antitrust authorities to “thoroughly investigate whether any online platform has acted in violation of the antitrust laws.” It instructs other government agencies to recommend within a month after it’s signed actions that could potentially “protect competition among online platforms and address online platform bias.”
The document doesn’t name any specific companies. If signed, the order would represent a significant escalation of Trump’s antipathy toward Google, Facebook, Twitter and other social media companies, whom he has publicly accused of silencing conservative voices and news sources online.
“Social Media is totally discriminating against Republican/Conservative voices,” Trump said on Twitter in August. “Speaking loudly and clearly for the Trump Administration, we won’t let that happen. They are closing down the opinions of many people on the RIGHT, while at order says. It adds that consumer the same time doing nothing harm — a key measure to others.” in antitrust investigations-
Social media companies could come “through the have acknowledged in congressional exercise of bias.” hearings that their The order’s preliminary efforts to enforce prohibitions status is reflected in the text against online harassment of the draft, which includes a have sometimes led to erroneous note in red that the first section punishment of political could be expanded “if figures on both the left and necessary, to provide more right, and that once discovered detail on role of platforms those mistakes have been corrected. and the importance of competition.” They say there is no systematic The possibility of effort to silence conservative an executive order emerged voices. as Attorney General Jeff
The draft order directs that Sessions prepares for a Sept. any actions federal agencies 25 briefing by state attorneys take should be “consistent with general who are already other laws” an apparent nod to investigating the tech firms’ concerns that it could threaten practices. the traditional independence The meeting, which will of U.S. law enforcement or conflict include a representative of with the First Amendment, the Justice Department’s which protects political views antitrust division, is intended from government regulation. to help Sessions decide if
“Because of their critical there’s a federal case to be role in American society, it is made against the companies, essential that American citizens two people familiar with the are protected from anticompetitive matter have said. acts by dominant online platforms," the