Opinion | Klobuchar’s Big Tech anti-trust bill deserves a vote after recess

The legislation, aimed at the biggest online companies, would in essence prevent major tech platforms from favoring their own services and products over those of competitors.

The bill would have profound implications for companies like Amazon, Apple and Google which all run their own marketplaces for products or information. Those companies have been accused of ranking their own products higher than rivals’ in an attempt to generate more profits for themselves.

Third-party sellers on Amazon, for example, have suspected the platform ranks its own similar private-label products over their own. Travel or local search sites like Yelp and Tripadvisor have complained that Google unfairly lowers their links in search results in favor of prime placement of its Google Maps tool. The platforms have denied any misconduct and say their decisions are based on determinations about what will make up the best experience for users.

(Disclosure: Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, owns The Washington Post.)

Big Tech is spending big money to kill legislation that would prevent platforms from disadvantaging competitors. From the creepy and ominous ads, you’d think the bill was actually about destroying civilization as we know it.

Bloomberg reported recently: “Groups funded by the tech industry have spent almost $120 million on political advertising since the beginning of 2021. … It marks the first time the tech industry has spent more on political ads than the pharmaceutical industry, the traditional leader in the field.” Supporters of the legislation are essentially small nonprofits advocating online competition.

One of these, Accountable Tech, has sent around a memo on Capitol Hill, which I obtained. It argues that the pro-competition bill is another inflation-fighting measure. “More than either Democrats or Republicans, or Biden or Trump, Americans overwhelmingly blame corporate greed and monopoly exploitation for driving up inflation,” the memo argues. “And tech giants have epitomized the brazen profiteering that earns their ire, raking in a record-shattering $1.4 trillion last year, while gratuitously hiking prices across the economy.”

The antitrust advocates are launching an ad buy in Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, New Hampshire and New York that focuses on inflation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgwBJ6e_-6g

The campaign lines up with Democrats’ claims that excess market concentration in food, drug, energy and other industries allows large corporations to reap excessive profits, raise prices (fueling inflation), lower wages and otherwise hurt consumers. In May, the House, for example, passed a bill to combat price-gouging at the gas pump. The recently passed Inflation Reduction Act tackles Big Pharma and exorbitant prescription drug costs in a different way: with a price cap on insulin for Medicare beneficiaries and new powers for the Department of Health and Human Services to negotiate drug prices in certain categories. Now, Klobuchar and the bill’s other supporters want to put Big Tech in the hot seat.

The legislation has gained bipartisan support, for reasons not directly related to the bill itself. To be blunt, at a time Democrats and Republicans agree on very little, both sides have developed a robust hatred of Big Tech. Democrats accuse tech companies of refusing to de-platform disinformation, posts that incite violence and hate speech. They blame social media algorithms for stoking anger and hyper-partisanship. Republicans (inaccurately but passionately) accuse Big Tech of disfavoring conservatives (although right-wing outlets consistently rank at the top of platforms such as Facebook). Both sides have accused the tech industry of harmfully manipulating children.

To be clear, the antitrust bill has virtually nothing to do with these topics, but ill will on both sides of the aisle has significantly weakened Big Tech’s clout and prestige, making the firms an easier target for regulation generally.

At a time of record inflation, the impetus to bring Big Tech to heel — just as Democrats have attempted with other hyper-concentrated fields — is intense, which offers Republicans (who have opposed measures to rein in other industries) a valuable chance to show they are fighting for consumers. And while it’s not going to solve rage-inducing algorithms or stop hate speech, the bill would be a rare strike against an industry that both parties see as too big for its breeches.