Barr Sees Big-Tech Probe Wrapping Up by Next Year
10 Dicembre 2019 - 10:30PM
Dow Jones News
By Tim Hanrahan
WASHINGTON -- Attorney General William Barr said he would like
for the Justice Department probe of Big Tech to wrap up by next
year, saying there is a cost to business and the marketplace from
long investigations.
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.
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."
A Journal article on Tuesday highlighted the argument that
Facebook harmed consumers by charging them ever-increasing amounts
of personal data to use its platform.
In the Journal article, a person who has worked on Facebook's
privacy policies disputed the premise. "We haven't degraded privacy
protection, we've increased it," the person said.
Write to Tim Hanrahan at tim.hanrahan@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 10, 2019 16:15 ET (21:15 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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