Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) ratcheted up her trust-busting message today in calling for the breakup of Amazon, Google and Facebook.
In a Medium blog post, Warren name-checked specific "anti-competitive" mergers she would have regulators unwind, including Facebook’s acquisition of WhatsApp and Instagram; Amazon’s purchase of Whole Foods and Zappos; and Google’s acquisitions of Waze, Nest and DoubleClick.
She also said she would seek legislation requiring that certain large tech companies be designated as "platform utilities" and "broken apart from any participant on that platform.” Those targets would include Amazon Marketplace, Google’s ad exchange and Google Search.
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Warren outlined the strategy ahead of a campaign rally Friday in Long Island City in Queens, New York, the onetime designated site for Amazon’s second headquarters before the company pulled out amid criticism from state and local Democrats about corporate tax breaks.
Warren is hardly alone among 2020 Democratic presidential contenders in applying more scrutiny to the market power of the nation’s tech giants — Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) have also talked tough on curbing Silicon Valley — but Warren’s latest comments provide the most detailed road map of any candidate so far.
President Donald Trump has also shown a willingness to weigh in on mergers, stoking concern of inappropriate White House influence over regulators, as in the case of the AT&T-Time Warner deal his administration unsuccessfully fought in court.
Trump first announced he would try to block the merger of AT&T and Time Warner — which included CNN, one of his top media targets — during the 2016 presidential campaign.
Since becoming president, Trump has also amplified Republican accusations that the major internet companies are biased against conservatives in the way they handle political content. The companies deny they make any content decisions based on political factors.