Big Tech reeling from Congressional Anti-Trust Legislation ; National Security State Agencies Appeal to Senators to not break Big Tech Monopoly in the interest of National Security.
Green Liberty Caucus supports anti-trust legislation to end monopoly power of Big Tech, fight national security operations and media censorship.
The Green Liberty Caucus stands in solidarity with the efforts of Senator Klobuchar and others in Congress to limit the monopoly power of Big Tech. Legislation would limit Big Tech's capacity to control internet traffic to advantage its satellite business for profit at the expense of the free flow of information.
Google and Facebook hold monopoly power of media that impedes innovation and free flow of information, activity that needs regulation, say anti-trust proponents, such as Glen Greenwall in a recent substack post.
The Green Liberty Caucus invites our members to communicate with Senators and Representatives in Congress to support anti-trust legislation.
There are two acts in the Senate: the Intercept reports: “The American Innovation and Choice Online Act aims to prevent the largest online platforms like Google and Amazon from favoring their own products and services against their competitors. The Open App Markets Act aims to stop Apple and Google from granting preferential treatment to their own products in the App Store and Google Play, respectively.”
However, Green Liberty would go further and seek redress against the actual issue of censorship and de-platforming of dissenting viewpoints by Big Tech. Censorship by Big Tech through its deployment of algorithms that search and suppress select topics needs to be addressed in subsequent legislation.
Most notably, journalist Chris Hedges had his complete archive from his work on You Tube, a platform owned by Google aka Alphabet, that removed his work from the platform. It is unclear why Hedges was de-platformed, but the complete removal of a journalist's cache of material, shows the power of Big Tech to limit the access to information.
The coalition letter from state security agencies is a telling acknowledgment that the United States government national security agencies are colluding with Big Tech organizations like Google and Facebook on national security matters. The letter from a coalition of national security leaders, requests the Senate to not advance anti-trust legislation on grounds the legislation would weaken the monopoly power of Google and Facebook, and this by extension, would hamper the capacity of national security agencies to track and control information.
The Green Liberty Caucus recognizes that our society is dominated by a national security / surveillance state that conspires with Big Tech to advance national and domestic security controls that includes censorship through denial to search algorithms. This collusion harms the public interest in the free flow of ideas and information and qualifies as a crime against civil rights to be free from censorship and have access to the figurative, public square, be it Twitter or Facebook.
Using anti-trust legislation to break Big Tech domination is a step that we needed long ago.
Ending the monopoly power of Big Tech is necessary for securing civil liberties. Indeed, agencies like Google and Facebook function as public spaces and libraries. They need to be regulated as such, like power utilities, so that civil liberties of free speech and expression of ideas and publication of information is ensured and secured.
https://theintercept.com/2022/04/19/big-tech-antitrust-chuck-schumer/
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/09/22/former-security-officials-antitrust-tech-ties-513657
https://punchbowl.news/wp-content/uploads/Open-Letter-Cyber-Intel-Defense-HS-1.pdf
See Glenn Greenwald, [email protected],
Sent: Wednesday, April 20, 2022, 11:50:06 AM PDT
Subject: Former Intelligence Officials, Citing Russia, Say Big Tech Monopoly Power is Vital to National Security
