By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 10-11-20
If Silicon Valley executives thought it couldn’t get much hotter for them in D.C., they have another think coming.
And Democrats, who once defended edge providers as the virtuous inhabitants of an online garden threatened by Internet service providers, were leading the charge.
At the head of the pack was a majority report from the House Antitrust Subcommittee, the product of a year-plus investigation into Apple, Amazon, Facebook, and Google.
While the findings were attributed to staff, Democratic legislators were definitely on board with the damning conclusion, as they had telegraphed at a recent hearing. The report concluded that social media giants have leveraged their gatekeeper power to “erode entrepreneurship, degrade Americans’ privacy online, and undermine the vibrancy of the free and diverse press. The result is less innovation, fewer choices for consumers, and a weakened democracy.” Other than that, how was the play, Mrs. Lincoln? » Read More