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Feds Wait Too Long, So State AGs Begin Their Move Against Tech Giants

By Ben Marquis

It has become increasingly apparent over the years that the major Silicon Valley-based technology companies have tried to straddle the line between being open platforms for the sharing of information or biased arbiters that pick and choose what information can be shared.

At the same time, those several tech companies have grown so large and amassed so much power that they have essentially become monopolies that govern the purportedly free space of the internet with arbitrary rules and terms of service that are inconsistently applied.

Though there have been rumblings among elected federal officials about addressing the growing concerns on this issue, nothing much has been done as of yet. However, a number of bipartisan state-level officials across the country are considering their options to move against the Silicon Valley monopolists, and “all actions” are on the table and under consideration.

Republican attorney general of Louisiana, Jeff Landry, who serves as president of the National Association of Attorneys General, was interviewed on Sirius XM’s Breitbart News Daily on March 19 and said that already existing anti-trust laws could be used to combat the growing the power of major tech firms like Google, Facebook and Twitter, among others.

“We have seen a tremendous amount of consolidation in regard to social platforms and the tech industry over the last decade, and the result of that has become a handful of companies — and I mean a very handful — that have amassed a tremendous amount of data and power over the U.S. and world economy,” Landry said.

Host Alex Marlow agreed and noted that the speech of conservatives had been stifled.

“Just the fact that they can censor any type of speech is problematic, on top of the fact that the monetization of people’s personal data is enriching these companies at the expense of the consumer,” Landry replied.

“When you talk to attorneys general around the country — irrespective of whether they’re Democrat or Republican, liberal or conservative — there is an instinct that something is going on,” he continued. “So, there is this instinctive feeling that something must be done with these companies, that they have become too big.”

Ben Marquis

Contributor, Commentary

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