US senators Warren, Graham kick off bipartisan anti-Big Tech push

[1/2] U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) listens during a Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., April 18, 2023. REUTERS/Amanda Andrade-Rhoades/File Photo
WASHINGTON, July 27 (Reuters) – U.S. senators Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat, and Lindsey Graham, a Republican, said on Thursday they would push for an ambitious bill to create a new government regulator empowered to rein in Meta Platforms’ (META.O) Facebook, Alphabet’s (GOOGL.O) Google, Amazon.com (AMZN.O) and other Big Tech platforms.
For several years, bills intended to clip the wings of Big Tech companies have fallen short in U.S. Congress even as federal agencies wage legal battles against Google and Facebook over alleged violations of antitrust law.
In addition to creating the regulatory commission, the proposed law would tighten antitrust law to forbid the companies from preferencing their own products over those of rivals. Amazon, for example, has been accused of favoring its own brands when consumers conduct searches on Amazon.
It would allow the commission to stop certain acquisitions by the companies and force asset sales in some circumstances, Warren’s office said in a description of the proposed measure.
The measure would also guarantee some privacy protections and limit foreign ownership and access to data by foreign adversaries.
Like the Federal Trade Commission, the new Digital Consumer Protection Commission would have five commissioners with a maximum of three from one political party.