Congress to probe tech giants

WASHINGTON—The House Judiciary Committee on Monday launched a first-of-its-kind bipartisan antitrust probe against unspecified technology companies that control large portions of the industry. “A small number of dominant, unregulated platforms have extraordinary power over commerce, communication, and information online,” the committee said in a statement, adding that it plans to oversee a “top-to-bottom review of the market power held by giant tech platforms” as the first step in a longer process before the House considers any legal action. But Sandeep Vaheesan, legal director of the anti-monopoly Open Markets Institute, said, “There’s still a long way to go before there is even an investigation.”

Although the Judiciary Committee did not specifically mention any companies, investor reactions on Monday seem to indicate that the biggest names are in the crosshairs. After reports surfaced about the probe on Monday, shares of Facebook stock fell by 7.5 percent, while Google’s parent company, Alphabet, took a 6.1 percent hit, and Amazon’s stock dropped by 4.6 percent.