EDITORIAL: Will Cicilline Be a Roosevelt Trust Buster on Big Tech or a Democratic Lackey
Thursday, October 15, 2020
President Theodore Roosevelt took on the most powerful business interests PHOTO: Library of Congress
Cicilline was strong in his subcommittee’s pronouncements about the abuses by Apple, Amazon, Alphabet (Google’s parent company) and Facebook.
Cicilline is highly critical of Apple and Google for their anti-competitive treatment of app developers.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTHe is critical of Facebook’s ownership of Instagram and WhatsApp — the Cicilline report states, ”Facebook has monopoly power in the market for social networking. According to internal documents produced by Facebook to the Committee, it has high reach, time-spent, and significantly more users than its rivals in this market. Despite significant changes in the market—such as the advent of mobile devices, applications, and operating systems—Facebook has held an unassailable position in the social network market for nearly a decade, demonstrating its monopoly power.”
The report is chock full of examples of anti-completive behavior.
But as the heat turns up on big tech, big tech has turned on the cash flow to Democratic Presidential candidate Joe Biden.
As GoLocal reported this week, a report published by tech publication Wired found ”that employees at Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, and Oracle have contributed nearly 20 times as much money to Biden as to [Preisdent Donald] Trump since the beginning of 2019. According to data released by the Federal Election Commission, which requires individuals who contribute $200 or more to a presidential campaign to report their employer, employees at these six companies have contributed $4,787,752 to Biden and just $239,527 to Trump.”
Cicilline deserves credit for his comprehensive report, but now he must stand up to Big Tech’s influence in the Congressman’s own party.
“Our aim is not to do away with corporations; on the contrary, these big aggregations are an inevitable development of modern industrialism...we are not hostile to them; we are merely determined that they shall be so handled as to subserve the public good. We draw the line against misconduct, not against wealth, said President Teddy Roosevelt.
So which will it be, Congressman -- Trust Buster or Democratic lackey?
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