Big Tech is putting pressure on moderate Democrats to defeat the new regulation

Major Democrats are backing away from attempts by members of their own party to regulate large tech companies, in a sign of how likely progressives can find them to rewrite competition laws.

Democratic House members have attacked a package of measures promoting members of the House antitrust committee, while the opposition is based on radical proposals that some hope could lead to the breakup of Big Tech.

The rift demonstrates how difficult it will be to enact a major shake-up of U.S. antitrust laws, though President Joe Biden is considering signing his own executive order to strengthen the powers of regulators to promote competition in their sectors.

California Democratic Rep. Zoe Lofgren told the Financial Times, “I don’t think they spend a lot of time drafting these bills, some of the measures they contain are embarrassing … I’m in favor of adjusting antitrust laws, but some of these are radical ”.

Lou Correa, another Democratic representative from California, said: “I’m not sure we should try to break some of these companies. And why do we distinguish American companies, and especially those in California? “

Last week, the House Judiciary Committee passed six bills aimed at breaking the corporate power enjoyed by Google, Facebook, Amazon and Apple.

The measure is part of a broader push to adopt the most significant change in U.S. competition law in a generation. But industry pressure groups are targeting centrist Democrats and those in California in particular as they try to block the most radical measures.

One of the bills would prohibit large tech companies from giving preferential treatment to their own products and could stop practicing as Amazon uses its online store to promote the products it has manufactured. Another thing would prevent them from buying rivals or budding competitors, as Facebook did with both WhatsApp and Instagram.

Biden has shown support for the Big Tech dam by appointing Lina Khan, a law professor who has called for the breakup of Amazon, to chair the Federal Trade Commission and Tim Wu, another prominent critic, as an adviser to the White House. Amazon on Wednesday filed a petition with the FTC, asking Khan to withdraw from investigations related to the company.

Wu is one of those working on an executive order that would give more power to industry regulators to foster competition in their sectors. As part of this order, officials consider ordering regulators to ban “non-compete” clauses, which have been used by companies. including Amazon to prevent their employees from moving to work for their rivals.

A White House spokesman said: “The president made it clear during his campaign that he is committed to increasing competition in the US economy… But there is no final decision on any action at this time.” .

Critics of big tech want to push for legislative changes after antitrust lawsuits filed against Facebook by the FTC and dozens of state attorneys general using current competition law have been kicked out of court this week.

But Lofgren and Correa’s comments show how difficult it will be to pass this legislation, even though it has attracted the support of a handful of Republican critics of Big Tech. It comes days after Steny Hoyer, the Democratic leader in the House, warned that the bills had sparked opposition from senior members of his party and they were not prepared for the vote of the plenary.

Earlier this month, a separate set of eight Democrats warned bills “may weaken personal privacy protections [and] cyber security and increase the spread of dangerous conspiracy theories and misinformation ”.

Democrats have a narrow majority in the House of Representatives and Kevin McCarthy, the leader of the Republican minority, has expressed opposition. An industry lobbyist expressed confidence that the laws would not reach the House, saying, “Centrist Democrats and the California delegation should watch over this.”

Adam Kovacevich, chief executive of the House of Progress, a new group aligned with Democrats representing the technology industry, said: “We are focusing our efforts on those Democrats who are not part of the judiciary and we ask them, ‘Is this something your constituents? do we cry ‘”

David Cicilline, chairman of the House antitrust subcommittee, told the FT that he did not expect concerns from fellow Democrats to prevent the plenary vote.

“I fully hope that these bills will get a vote and get bipartisan support,” he said. “Not everyone is aware that this legislation is the product of 16 months of research to really study these platforms and that we have spent the first six months of this year drafting careful legislation.”

If the laws go before the House, they can get Senate support from Republicans like Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz, who have been prominent critics of Big Tech.

But with the 60 votes needed to beat a filibuster, industry lobbyists believe there is only room for approval of the less controversial measures, such as a step to increase funding for competition regulators.