Those proposals are in a 450-page report issued Tuesday by a House antitrust panel, which undertook a 15-month investigation into the companies market dominance.
But the report offers Congress a roadmap for 2021 should it choose to follow up on the report's proposals, which seems likely should Democrats regain control of both houses of Congress and the presidency.
The report said the four companies have abused their market power by charging excessive fees, imposing tough contract terms and extracting valuable data from individuals and businesses that rely on them.
For decades, the tech giants have enjoyed light-touch regulation and star status in Washington, but have faced growing scrutiny and criticism over issues of competition, consumer privacy, hate speech and their effects on democracy and the political climate.
There's little question that the companies would wage an all-out fight against any breakup attempts, and it's not clear how many legislators would choose that path.
The report attributes the significant and durable market power of the companies in large part to a high volume of acquisitions.
Facebook used its data advantage to create superior market intelligence to identify nascent competitive threats and then acquire, copy, or kill these firms, the report states. Google, meanwhile, maintained its monopoly over general search through a series of anticompetitive tactics including an an aggressive campaign to undermine vertical search providers.
Ken Buck of Colorado, it called for targeted enforcement of existing antitrust laws rather than onerous and burdensome regulation that kills industry innovation.Original article