Antitrust Regulators Dig Deeper Into Dominant Tech Companies

The government is circling the wagons around Big Tech as the scrutiny of its immense power intensifies.

Two groups of state attorneys general are joining the fray with separate investigations into whether Google and Facebook have been unfairly leveraging their array of popular — and free — services to dominate the lucrative online advertising market.

The U.S. Justice Department already has a major antitrust investigation into unnamed technology giants, while the House Judiciary Committee is in the early stages of “a top-to-bottom review” of the power amassed by Google, Facebook, Amazon and Apple.

The Federal Trade Commission has completed two investigations on privacy, fining Facebook $5 billion and joining New York state in a $170 million settlement with Google’s YouTube.

In some ways, the U.S. is simply trying to catch up with European regulators. Europe has come down especially hard on Google by imposing fines of nearly $10 billion for abusing the power of it widely used search engine, digital ad network and Android software for smartphones. Google’s corporate parent, Alphabet Inc., is appealing the Europe fines.

Experts say breakups are unlikely in the short term. U.S. Rep. David Cicilline, the Rhode Island Democrat leading the House investigation, has framed such measures as a “last resort.” Even so, Facebook, Google, Amazon and Apple could face new restrictions on their power.

Here’s a look at how these companies dominate and what their defences could be.

FACEBOOK

Facebook is certainly big. But is it an illegal, competition-crushing monopoly?

Critics believe a breakup — possibly by spinning offInstagram and WhatsApp — is needed because Facebook can squash competitors either by buying them or using its enormous resources to mimic services they offer — as it’s done with Snapchat, for example.