Our politics may be profoundly polarized at the moment, with the nation’s two major parties at loggerheads over basic questions of democracy and reality itself. But there’s at least one area where Democrats and Republicans are in accord, and it seems to have major tech leaders deeply concerned.
Lawmakers are currently considering six bipartisan bills that would dramatically reform America’s antitrust laws and slap far more stringent regulations on major Silicon Valley firms like Apple, Amazon, Facebook, and Google, whose power has grown largely unchecked for years. It’s not clear which of the bills, if any, will pass in their current form. But, as Ars Technica pointed out last week, the fact that the efforts have the backing of both parties likely means that something to rein in Big Tech is coming down the pike. “Right now, unregulated tech monopolies have too much power over our economy,” Democratic Representative David Cicilline, who introduced one of the bills, told the outlet. “Our agenda will level the playing field and ensure the wealthiest, most powerful tech monopolies play by the same rules as the rest of us.”
With the groundswell growing on Capitol Hill, Big Tech is going to the mat, enlisting lobbyists, tech executives, and every other means at their disposal in a full-court press to stop the bills. According to the New York Times, that has included a personal call from Apple CEO Tim Cook to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in early June to try to convince her that the legislation is “rushed,” anti-innovation, and harmful to consumers. (Pelosi apparently “pushed back,” asking Cook to identify “specific policy objections to the measures,” people familiar with the exchange told the Times.) “In a way I’ve never seen before, they are fighting tooth and nail,” Gigi Sohn, a distinguished fellow at Georgetown University’s Institute for Technology Law and Policy, told the Times. “They consider these bills existential for them because they get at their business models.”
The Big Four have largely eluded meaningful regulation for years, amassing enormous power along the way. But recently there’s been sustained calls for reform, and the companies have started to feel the heat. States have launched antitrust investigations; Google, Facebook, and Amazon have all been hit with lawsuits accusing them of monopolistic behavior; and prominent politicians like Elizabeth Warren have made breaking up the companies into a rallying cry.
The bills, which go before the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, tackle different aspects of the companies’ alleged antitrust behavior, and would likely impact them differently. For instance, the Cicilline-introduced American Choice and Innovation Online Act, which would prohibit companies from giving an advantage to their own products or services on their platform, would probably be a bigger headache for Cook and Apple than it would for others in the Big Four, as Ars Technica observed. But, taken together, the legislative push would significantly reshape the landscape for big tech in America.
Of course, bipartisan doesn’t mean unanimous. Democrats’ control of the House and Senate has upped the pressure on Silicon Valley. But some Republicans, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California, have expressed opposition to the slate of legislation, with allies of Donald Trump like Jim Jordan condemning what he called “Democrat bills”—even as they lob their own accusations against tech for supposedly silencing conservatives. Still, the coalition supporting checks on the companies’ power is broad, spanning the political spectrum from the progressive Cicilline to the Trumpian Matt Gaetz, and seems to have tech leaders rightly worried. “Big tech has gotten a free ride for decades,” Cicilline tweeted Tuesday. “They pay no taxes. They use their power to crush innovators and entrepreneurs. Republicans and Democrats don’t agree on much these days, but we agree that we need to pass legislation to build [a stronger online economy].”
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