SENATOR VOWS TO BREAK UP TECH GIANTS
US Democratic presidential hopeful proposes laws to regulate online companies
SENATOR Elizabeth Warren, who is bidding to be the policy pacesetter in the Democratic presidential primary, championed another expansive idea on Friday evening in front of a crowd of thousands in Queens here: a regulatory plan aimed at breaking up some of America’s largest tech companies, including Amazon, Google, Apple and Facebook.
At a rally in Long Island City, the neighbourhood that was to be home to a major new Amazon campus, Warren laid out her proposal calling for regulators who would undo some tech mergers, as well as legislation that would prohibit platforms from offering a marketplace for commerce and participating in that marketplace.
“We have these giants corporations — do I have to tell that to people in Long Island City? — that think they can roll over everyone,” Warren told the crowd, drawing applause.
She compared Amazon to the dystopian novel The Hunger Games, in which those with power force their wishes on the less fortunate.
“I’m sick of freeloading billionaires,” she said.
Warren’s policy announcement sent reverberations from New York to Silicon Valley, as she further cemented herself as one of the Democratic candidates most willing to call for large-scale changes to the country’s structure in the name of equality.
Among the crowded field of Democrats seeking the presidential nomination, Warren has done the most to add detail to those early proposals, including a plan for universal childcare, a tax on the country’s wealthiest families, and, as of Friday, breaking up big technological giants.
Pressure for elected officials to place additional oversight on mega-tech companies has been building for months, particularly after revelations that companies such as Facebook may have violated customer privacy agreements.
Warren is also sending a political warning shot across the Democratic primary field, where decisions on how much to embrace or reject Silicon Valley and its wealthy donors could become an important dividing line among candidates.
“Our technology industry is the envy of the world, and we need policies that will foster innovation and consumer choice — but we also need stronger enforcement of anti-trust law,” said Representative Ro Khanna, who represents Silicon Valley headquarters of companies, such as Apple and eBay.
He said blanket statements against big tech companies weren’t helpful, but that each company needs to be “evaluated on a case-by-case basis and afforded due process”.