Conservatives across the country have grown increasingly distrustful of large online platforms. From content suppression during COVID-19 to the deplatforming of Parler to large-scale data breaches, high-profile incidents have led many on the center-right to question Big Tech’s influence over our lives.
With Republicans poised to gain seats in Congress in November, lawmakers should be looking ahead to the 118th Congress to address constituents’ concerns with Big Tech platforms without giving the Biden administration overreaching authority. Utah GOP Sen. Mike Lee’s Tougher Enforcement Against Monopolies Act, also known as the TEAM Act, should be a rallying point for lawmakers.
“America is facing a panoply of competition concerns, not just in Big Tech, but across the entire economy. We need a holistic approach that benefits all consumers in every industry,” Lee said on the Senate floor when introducing the legislation. “We need to deal with all the monopolists hurting competition. … The TEAM Act avoids the black-and-white pronouncements of other legislative proposals and instead updates the mechanics of how the antitrust laws are applied to address the enforcement gaps of recent decades.”
Indeed, the act takes a comprehensive approach to reforming federal antitrust laws to hold Big Tech and other companies accountable and to promote competition, while codifying the consumer welfare standard, which has been the foundational principle of American antitrust law for decades.
Click here to read the full piece in Deseret.
