SAN FRANCISCO – US Attorney General Jeff Sessions met Tuesday with a group of law enforcement officials to examine how they could protect consumers and businesses from the most powerful companies in the technology.

The Ministry of Justice said the conversation focused on consumer protection and data privacy as "areas of consensus". The White House is considering a draft order to order federal enforcement and law enforcement agencies to open polls on the practices of technology companies.

Debate issues included the growth and size of technology companies and their collection and processing of personal information and the way attorneys general could work together, according to three officials from 13 states and Washington, DC. Attorneys General said they expected further discussions on how state and federal authorities could address these issues.

"The fact that there seems to be a broader consensus among states and the interest shown by the federal government is likely to increase the likelihood of greater activity from the point of view of regulatory oversight and investigations by state governments. and maybe the federal government. " DC Attorney General Karl Racine told USA TODAY.

The in camera meeting came as President Donald Trump and other Republicans claimed that major corporations such as Google and Facebook of Alphabet suppress and censor conservative views contrary to the leftist politics of Silicon Valley.

Sessions turn to accusations of bias

When the Justice Department announced the meeting earlier this month, he said he would discuss whether companies such as Google and Facebook's Alphabet are hurting competition and "intentionally choking the free exchange of ideas."

The sessions opened Tuesday the meeting, which also included Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, raising the issue of ideological prejudices and twice seeking to bring the conversation back to the subject of suppressed or censored online conservatives.

"It seemed to me that the purpose of the meeting was to push the Trump administration's idea that social media would be politically biased, and I think it stifles the political rhetoric and it's a dangerous thing, Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh told USA TODAY. "I asked if they had evidence that the algorithms showed political bias and asked what was the theory under the antitrust law dealing with what's called bias These questions have not been answered. "

State officials said they had redirected the discussion to antitrust and confidentiality issues. States have the power to investigate anticompetitive practices and deceptive business practices. It's hard to know if they can regulate data processing under antitrust laws.

At the top of the agenda: how companies collect users' private data and what they do with it.

"Their power is unparalleled in history," Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood told USA Today.

Mr. Hood, who suggested a formal partnership between Attorneys General and the federal government to prosecute high-tech companies, drew parallels with previous government interventions, such as the dominance of Standard Oil, the department of Justice. telephone monopoly and antitrust actions against Microsoft.

"We will meet by phone and see where we are in the next six weeks," said Hood, one of Google's most outspoken critics. "It will take a while, probably decades of litigation, but we need to change their behavior, especially with respect to privacy."

The meeting was further evidence of the dramatic change in fortunes for big tech in Washington. Criticism of their business practices intensified with revelations that they failed to protect people's personal information and did too little to fight misinformation online during the 2016 presidential election.

"It is certain that this meeting took place and that the US Attorney General invited the GAs to focus on the major platforms and technology companies and how they collect and use important data", said Racine.

Some attorneys general are already pursuing large technology companies alone.

Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson is suing Facebook and Google, saying they do not comply with the state's transparency laws on political advertising.

Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley, who runs for the US Senate on the Republican ticket, has opened an antitrust investigation into whether Google manipulates search results to increase its own products and wipe out information from competitors without permission.

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