Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) on Friday announced a proposal to break up major tech companies, including Facebook, Google, and Amazon.
The 2020 Democratic contender said in a Medium post that "to restore the balance of power in our democracy, to promote competition, and to ensure that the next generation of technology innovation is as vibrant as the last, it's time to break up our biggest tech companies."
Warren's proposal calls for tech companies to be prevented from both owning a marketplace and participating on that marketplace. Under the plan, companies with $25 billion or more in annual global revenue that offer "an online marketplace, an exchange, or a platform for connecting third parties" would be designated as "platform utilities" and spun off. As an example, Warren says that Google Search would be a platform utility separate from other parts of Google, such as its ad exchange.
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Warren also calls for unwinding some major tech mergers, such as Amazon's acquisition of Whole Foods, Google's acquisition of DoubleClick and Waze, and Facebook's acquisition of Instagram and WhatsApp. She says doing so will "promote healthy competition in the market."
CNN reports the Massachusetts senator is expected to discuss this proposal during an event on Friday in Long Island City, the site Amazon had originally chosen for one of its HQ2 locations.
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