Justice Department antitrust head says big tech isn’t necessarily bad
But behaving badly is another story.
Earlier this week, after Facebook and Twitter executives testified before Congress about misinformation, election meddling and content monitoring, US Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced he would be meeting with state AGs about social networks "intentionally stifling the free exchange of ideas." The talks will also address concerns over anti-competitiveness among big tech companies. But now, Makan Delrahim, the Justice Department's antitrust division head, has put those competition concerns into some context.
"Just because somebody is big does not mean they have violated the laws," he said at a conference on Thursday. "Nor should we condemn them because they have succeeded." The statement came in response to a question about whether Amazon should be treated as a monopoly, Bloomberg reports. Delrahim said he supported Sessions' meeting but noted that there needs to be "credible evidence" that companies are engaging in anticompetitive practices before antitrust officials can take any measures to correct the problem. "Is any of their conduct in any way limiting the ability of that upstart to challenge their market position in that market where they're dominating?" he said. "Big is not bad but behaving badly is bad."
