America broke up logging companies in the 1840s, Standard
Oil in the 1910s, and AT&T in the 1980s. It’s time to take on big tech
This week the government filed a ground-breaking antitrust suit against Facebook, seeking to break up the corporation for monopolistic practices. The suit comes on the heels of a similar case against Google, as well as an aggressive Democrat-authored congressional report recommending taking apart not just
Google and Facebook, but
Apple and
Amazon as well.
The evidence against
Facebook seems overwhelming, with enforcers pointing to internal email conversations in which the CEO,
Mark Zuckerberg, and his colleagues allegedly conspired to monopolize the
Social Media space by buying rivals and stifling competitors. Proof of intent to violate antitrust law appears to be ample. Yet news articles covering the case describe it as “far from a slam dunk”, and competition law experts predict that enforcers will “face an uphill battle” in proving their claims.