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NY Attorney General Candidate Joins Growing Calls To Break Up Google And Facebook

NY Attorney General Candidate Joins Growing Calls To Break Up Google And Facebook

 

Zephyr Teachout, a Democratic candidate for New York attorney general, said she will work with others to launch a major antitrust investigation against Facebook and Google if she is elected.

Tech companies are to blame for dominating online advertising and taking revenue from newspapers and publishers, Teachout said as she stood in front of the New York Daily News office in Manhattan, Washington Post reported. She spoke a day after the New York Daily News announced layoffs and reduced its newsroom by half.

 

She’s one of a growing barrage of politician’s voices calling for the breakup of tech giants’ hold on the economy.

In June, Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison called on the federal government to break up Facebook and other monopolies, tweeting that the U.S. economy “needs real antitrust enforcement to prevent monopolies like Facebook from killing competition, buying influence, and handing out our personal data.”

Like Teachout, Ellison also has his eye on an attorney general job — him, in Minnesota — so he can challenge the policies of President Donald Trump, he said.

Trump has long called for more taxes on Amazon, saying in January that the company’s dominance is hurting American retailers. On Monday, Trump tweeted that Amazon deserves to be investigated for antitrust claims. It could have been unfavorable news reports that set Trump off again, CNBC reported:

Trump railed against the e-retailer and The Washington Post … in a series of tweets Monday morning, claiming the newspaper has “gone crazy” against Trump in the months since Amazon “lost the Internet Tax Case in the U.S. Supreme Court.”

Google and Facebook’s power in the advertising market represents a “democratic crisis” for journalism, Teachout said in an interview Wednesday. These are some of the things Teachout said she can or will do, anti-trust wise, if elected, according to Washington Post:

  • Block new mergers and acquisitions by the tech companies that she said cut off innovation and competition.
  • Use federal laws such as the Clayton Act and state statutes such as the Donnelly Act to prosecute monopolistic behavior.

“People are making money off of local news,” Teachout said. “But it isn’t the journalists, and it isn’t the publishers. It’s Facebook and Google.”

Google and Facebook
Zephyr Teachout announces her Democratic Party candidacy for the New York State Attorney General while standing across from Trump Tower, Tuesday, June 5, 2018, in New York. Teachout faces several candidates in the attorney general race, including New York City Public Advocate Letitia James. James won the endorsement of state Democrats at their convention last month. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)