Technology companies face antitrust scrutiny

WASHINGTON — Like Europe before it, the U.S. government looks ready to try reining in its technology giants. But doing so may be more difficult than it seems.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Justice opened a sweeping antitrust investigation of major technology companies and whether their online platforms have hurt competition, suppressed innovation or otherwise harmed consumers.

It said the probe will take into account “widespread concerns” about social media, search engines and online retail services.

Facebook announced Wednesday after being fined $5 billion by the Federal Trade Commission that it was also facing an antitrust investigation.

“Without the discipline of meaningful, marketbased competition, digital platforms may act in ways that are not responsive to consumer demands,” Makan Delrahim, the Justice Department’s chief antitrust officer, said in a statement. “The department’s antitrust review will explore these important issues.”

The terse but momentous announcement follows months of concern in Congress and elsewhere over the sway of firms like Google, Facebook and Amazon. Lawmakers and Democratic presidential candidates have called for stricter regulation or even breakups of the big tech companies, which have drawn intense scrutiny following scandals involving compromised user privacy, security lapses and misinformation and extremism that flourished on their platforms.

“It seems like the nation’s law enforcement agencies are finally waking up to the threat posed by big tech,” said Stacy Mitchell of the Institute for Local Self-reliance, which has criticized Amazon for stifling independent businesses. Mitchell testified at a House hearing last week.

But Big Tech could also present a difficult target, as current interpretations of U.S. antitrust law don’t obviously apply to companies offering inexpensive goods or free online services.

The Justice investigation mirrors a bipartisan probe of Big Tech undertaken by the House Judiciary subcommittee on antitrust. Its chairman, Rep. David Cicilline, a Rhode Island Democrat, has sharply criticized the conduct of Silicon Valley giants and said legislative or regulatory changes may be needed. He has called breaking up the companies a last resort.