GOP lawmakers split on antitrust technical investigation of the House

Republicans are divided over a new antitrust investigation by the Democratic Party on the technology sector, highlighting tensions between growing criticism of the GOP against companies such as Google and Facebook and the traditional party aversion to regulation enterprises.

The Judiciary Committee of the House opened the investigation on Monday to determine whether Silicon Valley technicians had engaged in anti-competitive behavior – and some Republican lawmakers quickly encouraged their fellow Democrats.

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"I am totally in favor," said Lindsey Graham (RS.C.), Senate Speaker at Justice, about the House's investigation, while her fellow member of the judiciary in the Senate, John Neely Kennedy (R-La.), Said it was time for Congress to examine how the growing power of the online industry is affecting consumers.

"Look, I'm very proud of the big social media companies," Kennedy told reporters. "They're all American companies, they've had tremendous success, so they're so big, but they're not companies anymore, they're countries."

Other congressional Republicans have however tempered their enthusiasm. And others have reacted with particular caution to the idea that Congress assumes an antitrust role normally incumbent upon the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission – which have recently been interested in technology giants such as Google and Amazon.

"Antitrust is a highly technical inquiry, one that does not lend itself to easy generalizations or general convictions," said Utah Senator Mike Sen, who chairs the Senate antitrust committee on the system. judiciary, which would be in a privileged position to oversee an investigation. "That's why it's better to leave these investigations to antitrust agencies than to Congress."

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), A leading critic of the technology sector, agreed that federal regulators would be "more effective" than Congress in controlling the issue. He suggested that lawmakers should instead focus on issues such as protecting the privacy of consumer data.

Reactions underscore Republicans' crackdowns on technology in the Trump era. Many have protested against Internet giants such as Google, Facebook and Twitter, especially against what they view as an anti-conservative bias in the way companies manage content. Some have considered removing longstanding liability protections from the industry. But most Republicans have also taken into account the party's instinctive disgust for everything that comes under regulation – not to mention the loss of confidence.

Graham is the most critical technology critic of the GOP. He complained about the unregulated "wild west" of social media companies and said he was "definitely ready to look at their business model." Ted Cruz, a Texas senator, has also accused digital platforms of repressing conservative speech.

"I was pleased to see the House launch this investigation and would like to see the Senate Judiciary Committee do the same," said Cruz.

House Democrats have not yet defined the full scope of the investigation. But Representative David Cicilline (DR.I.), Chairman of the Antitrust Subcommittee of the House of Representatives of the Judiciary responsible for conducting the congressional investigation, specifically designated Google, Facebook and Amazon as "an important element "during his announcement on Monday. He said he was ready to issue subpoenas and compel witnesses to testify as needed.

Top Republican Republican House Judiciary Doug Collins of Georgia and Jim Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin, the supreme Republican in his antitrust discussion group, first praised the Democrats' investigation. "If necessary, to act."

But a member of the GOP committee then tried to draw boundaries around this support, suggesting that both Republican lawmakers are wary of some of the more aggressive tactics cicillines.

Collins and Sensenbrenner agreed on "a less formal control activity on advanced technologies," said the assistant, who spoke anonymously because they were not allowed to speak. subpoena, force testimony from or start a critical investigation "in specific companies.

This reluctance contrasts with some of the fiery rhetoric that Republicans have brandished as they attach to perceived bias on the part of Google, Facebook and Twitter, who deny any political favoritism in the way they manage their platforms. .

Several GOP lawmakers, including Cruz and Hawley, have even launched the idea of ​​revising a 1996 law that gives websites immunity from lawsuits over content posted by their users. This is an essential provision for the internet industry, which protects companies from costly litigation if something defamatory appears in a search result, a YouTube video or a Facebook post, for example.

The antitrust issue of technology should not soon dissipate for Republicans, the subject occupying a central place in the Democratic presidential field. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) Called for a breakup of Facebook, Google, Amazon and Apple, and Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) Supports calls to split Facebook.

Meanwhile, the Department of Justice has opened the door to its own antitrust investigation on Google, although it has not yet clarified when it would launch such an investigation. People familiar with DOJ's activities confirmed last week to POLITICO and other media outlets that the ministry had jurisdiction over any potential Google investigation under a recent agreement with the Federal Trade Commission.

The Justice Ministry has also claimed jurisdiction over any antitrust complaint involving Apple, while the FTC would handle any investigation on Facebook and Amazon, according to information and sources close to these cases. The two agencies meet periodically to divide the companies into industry groups and determine which agency will handle an investigation. If violations warrant an investigation, a FTC official told POLITICO.

It is still unclear whether any of these procedural steps will turn into in-depth investigations or fines or other penalties. But the four American and European companies have both been victims of complaints from rivals who accuse them of abusing their dominant roles.