Barr Sees Big-Tech Probe Wrapping Up by Next Year
Barr
Sees Big-Tech Probe Wrapping Up by Next Year
Government has to move quickly and ‘fish or cut
bait,’ attorney general says
By Tim Hanrahan and Brent Kendall Updated Dec. 10, 2019 6:02
pm ET
WASHINGTON—Attorney General William Barr said he would like for
the Justice Department probe of Big Tech to wrap up next year, while also
warning that law enforcement would look at broader business practices unrelated
to antitrust concerns.
The government has to move quickly and “fish or cut bait,” he
said, in an interview at The Wall Street Journal CEO Council gathering in
Washington on Tuesday, citing the cost to business and the marketplace from
long investigations.
The Justice Department is conducting a broad antitrust review into whether
dominant technology companies, such as Facebook Inc. and Alphabet Inc. ’s
Google, are unlawfully stifling competition.
Mr. Barr said there is bipartisan
support on Capitol Hill and a “complete consensus” among the Justice Department
and state attorneys general that something should be done. He said that could
be an enforcement action or “an opportunity for legislative proposals.”
Mr. Barr also said he was receptive to the idea that there could
be monopolistic harm to users regarding personal data, even if the consumer
doesn’t pay for a service.
“I am inclined to think there is no free lunch. Something that
is free is actually getting paid for one way or the other. So I am open to that
argument.”
Shortly after the Journal event, Mr. Barr addressed concerns
about tech companies in a speech before the National Association of Attorneys
General, telling a room full of state AGs that the tech probe was among his
priorities. Most states also are investigating tech giants on concerns that
they have stifled competition.
Mr. Barr said online platforms offer a range of services that
require government law enforcers to take a broad look at the companies’
practices.
“Fair competition can cure many of the ills we see,” he said,
but added that the government’s wide review “also requires looking beyond
antitrust.”
If the tech giants are inflicting harm on society outside of the
issue of competition, the department will look at whether there are other tools
to address them, Mr. Barr said. He cited potential concerns about privacy,
transparency, child exploitation and consumer safety and fraud.
The attorney general also voiced concerns about the broad civil
immunity that internet companies enjoy under the Communications Decency Act for
material that is published on their platforms.
Mr. Barr favorably cited a dissenting opinion this year from
Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Robert Katzmann in a terrorism case
that banned civil claims against Facebook. Other judges found the act barred
allegations that Facebook was civilly liable because its algorithms matched the
Hamas organization with people that supported its cause.
Judge Katzmann’s dissent argued that Congress never intended for
online-platform immunity to be so broad.
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