The US House of Representatives’ upcoming antitrust proposal is being called a “thinly veiled call to break up” large technology firms including Apple, Google, and Facebook says a Republican Congressman.
Following the US House of Representative’s seventh and final hearing on big tech antitrust issues, a draft response claims the as-yet-unreleased antitrust proposals will call for the breakup of numerous big tech firms, including Apple, Google, Amazon, and Facebook.
Reuters reports Republican Congressman Ken Buck has responded to the forthcoming report, criticizing its main conclusions. “This proposal is a thinly veiled call to break up Big Tech firms,” he wrote. “We do not agree with the majority’s approach.”
Buck says he agrees with concerns about Big Tech, but objects to the report’s plan to require companies to delineate a clear “single line of business.” He is said to point out that while Amazon runs an e-commerce business, it also runs a separate but immensely successful Amazon Cloud Services business.
The subcommittee is expected to publish its report sometime before October 9. Any road to break-up will take years, and may not happen, depending on the political atmosphere in the years to come.
“The report offers a chilling look into how Apple, Amazon, Google, and Facebook have used their power to control how we see and understand the world,” continued Buck. “[However] these potential changes need not be dramatic to be effective.”