NY AG Leads Anti-Trust Action Against Facebook, Neronha May Join Move Against “Large Tech Firms”
Sunday, September 08, 2019
Last Thursday, New York Attorney General Letitia James announced that she is leading a bi-partisan effort investigating social media giant Facebook for antitrust issues.
Eight states and the District of Columbia announced the action. Rhode Island was not one of the states.
In a statement, James said, “Even the largest social media platform in the world must follow the law and respect consumers. I am proud to be leading a bipartisan coalition of attorneys general in investigating whether Facebook has stifled competition and put users at risk. We will use every investigative tool at our disposal to determine whether Facebook’s actions may have endangered consumer data, reduced the quality of consumers’ choices, or increased the price of advertising.”
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTJoining Attorney General James on the leadership team investigating Facebook are the attorneys general of Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Nebraska, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, and the District of Columbia. The investigation focuses on Facebook’s dominance in the industry and the potential anticompetitive conduct stemming from that dominance.”
RI’s Attorney General Peter Neronha’s office refused to answer questions as to why they did not join the initial action against Facebook led by James.
Neronha’s campaign for Attorney General spent a few thousand on Google and Facebook during his effort to win the office in 2018, according to campaign finance reports of the Rhode Island Board of Elections.
Neronha continues to use Facebook to promote his campaign fundraisers.
Monday Announcement in D.C.
Friday night GoLocal confirmed with the Rhode Island Attorney General’s office that he is scheduled to participate in a press announcement in Washington on Monday that is being held in front of the United States Supreme Court.
State Attorneys General will announce "bi-partisan, multi-state Investigation into Business Practices of Large Tech Firms.” Specifically, a yet to be named group of Attorneys General will announce "the launch of a multistate investigation into whether large tech companies have engaged in anticompetitive behavior that stifled competition, restricted access, and harmed consumers."
That action is focused on Google, according to the Wall Street Journal. "Separately, the Google probe is expected to be announced at a news conference outside the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday, with a bipartisan group of about three dozen state attorneys general joining the effort, according to people familiar with the matter," reports the WSJ, "The investigation will be led by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, the people said. The attorneys general will examine the impact of Google on digital advertising markets, this person said, as well as potential harms to consumers from their information and ad choices being concentrated in one company."
