Attorney General William Barr has elevated a lawyer from the Justice Department’s antitrust division to be his point person on a broad review into whether giant technology companies are using their power to thwart competition, signaling his hands-on interest in the issue.
Lauren Willard has been appointed to serve as a counselor to Barr, according to a Justice Department official. She will report to Barr on developments in the review.
The investigation is a sign of the escalating pressure on tech giants, from Capitol Hill to President Donald Trump, who accuses the companies of silencing conservative views. The giants of the industry have been criticized for practices that include the massive collection of user data, failing to police content on their platforms, and claims that they are harming competition and reducing choices for consumers.
Bloomberg has reported that U.S. antitrust agencies carved up oversight of four tech giants, with the [DOJ] taking Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Apple Inc., and the Federal Trade Commission claiming Facebook Inc. and Amazon.
MacDailyNews Take: Regarding Apple, the compnay does not have a monopoly or anything close to a monopoly in any market in which they compete, so the DOJ shouldn’t be wasting time on any Apple antitrust investigations. It’s ridiculous.
Google and Facebook, of course, are different stories. Any company that controls 92.62% of worldwide search on the Internet, as Google does, controls too much. And Facebook… don’t even get us started. Hopefully, the DOJ/FTC sees both of these outfits for what they are and finally proceeds accordingly.