“A company with such frightening influence over so many people, over their deepest thoughts, feelings and behavior needs real oversight,” Haugen said during her testimony. “These systems are going to continue to exist and be dangerous even if broken up.”
Jumping in: But Cicilline and Buck — who headed a 19-month investigation into competition in online markets that zeroed in on Facebook’s acquisitions and conduct toward rivals — have argued that her disclosures are another sign of the need to update the country’s antitrust laws.
“In the absence of competition or accountability, Facebook and other unregulated tech monopolies have no incentive to change, making the Internet less safe and less secure,” Buck and Cicilline wrote in a joint op-ed following her testimony before Congress.
The House Judiciary Committee earlier this year advanced a package of antitrust bills that seek to make it easier for the government to rein in the power of the tech giants. The package would make it easier to break up companies, bar them from discriminating against rivals and require them make it easier for consumers to take their data when switching to other services.
A bipartisan group of senators this week introduced a companion to one of the House antitrust bill focused on discrimination.