And Massachusetts senator and 2020 hopeful Elizabeth Warren has unveiled a plan to break up tech giants like Facebook, Google and Amazon. In a post published on Medium, Warren proposes classifying companies that bring in over $25 billion a year as “platform utilities,” and barring these utilities from selling their own products. That would mean, for example, that Google could not advertise Google products on its search platform and that Facebook would have to divest from apps like Instagram. Warren blamed tech monopolies for stifling competition, as well as overreach, due to how user data is collected and used. At a rally in Long Island City, New York—where local protests and political pressure recently led Amazon to withdraw its plan for a new HQ2 campus—Warren shared her plan with supporters on Friday night.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren: “They think they can come to towns, cities, states and bully everyone into doing what they want. They think they can scoop up all of our personal data and sell it to whoever they want, for whatever purposes.”