Justice Dept. Files Antitrust Lawsuit Against Google

 Just a few minutes ago, I spotted this on Twitter:

Good, it's about time that the giant tech companies' are held accountable for their unfair business practices.

Hopefully, similar action against Facebook and Twitter will follow. Facebook is already under investigation.

From the Wall Street Journal:

WASHINGTON—The Federal Trade Commission is gearing up to file a possible antitrust lawsuit against Facebook Inc. FB 0.95% by year-end, according to people familiar with the matter, in a case that would challenge the company’s dominant position in social media.

The case preparations come after the FTC has spent more than a year investigating concerns that Facebook has been using its powerful market position to stifle competition, part of a broader effort by U.S. antitrust authorities to examine the conduct of a handful of dominant tech companies.

No final decision has been made on whether to sue Facebook, people familiar with the matter said, and the commission doesn’t always bring cases even when it is making preparations to do so, such as when it decided against filing an antitrust complaint against Google Inc. in 2013 after a lengthy investigation.

 To read more, go here.

Social Media Antitrust Executive Order Drafted

In recent months, it has become apparent that some social media sites have an obvious bias against conservative viewpoints by employing such tactics as "shadow banning" to outright bans while promoting leftist/liberal viewpoints.

The Trump Administration is considering whether such actions are in violation of antitrust and other laws and has drafted a draft executive order to investigate.

According to Bloomberg:

(Bloomberg) -- The White House is considering a draft executive order for President Donald Trump that would instruct federal antitrust and law enforcement agencies to open probes into the practices of Alphabet Inc.’s Google, Facebook Inc., and other social media companies. 

Bloomberg News obtained a draft of the order, which a White House official said was in its early stages and hasn’t been run past other government agencies. Separately, Lindsey Walters, deputy White House press secretary, said in an emailed statement that the document isn’t the result of an official White House policy making process. 

The document instructs U.S. antitrust authorities to “thoroughly investigate whether any online platform has acted in violation of the antitrust laws.” It instructs other government agencies to recommend within a month after it’s signed, actions that could potentially “protect competition among online platforms and address online platform bias.”
Read the Executive Order draft on bias in online platforms. 

The document doesn’t name any companies. If signed, the order would represent a significant escalation of Trump’s aversion to Google, Facebook, Twitter and other social media companies, whom he’s publicly accused of silencing conservative voices and news sources online.

To read more, go here.