DOJ taking hard look at Big Tech monopolies

The U.S. Department of Justice is opening a sweeping antitrust probe of major technology companies, investigating whether their online platforms have hurt competition, suppressed innovation, or harmed consumers. The Justice Department did not name specific companies, but it said the review will consider the widespread concerns about search engines, social media, and some retail services online. “Without the discipline of meaningful market-based competition, digital platforms may act in ways that are not responsive to consumer demands,” said Makan Delrahim, the Justice Department’s chief antitrust officer. “The department’s antitrust review will explore these important issues.”

The news comes as a growing number of lawmakers have called for stricter regulation or even breaking up Big Tech companies. On Wednesday, the Federal Trade Commission fined Facebook $5 billion for privacy violations related to the Cambridge Analytica scandal, in which a data-mining company gathered details on as many as 87 million users without their permission.