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Today is an enormous win for the rule of law, fair and open markets, and American democracy.
@NewYorkStateAG, along with 47 state and territorial AGs and (finally!) the @FTC, has filed an open-and-shut case to #BreakUpFacebook and restore fair competition in digital markets.
@NewYorkStateAG, along with 47 state and territorial AGs and (finally!) the @FTC, has filed an open-and-shut case to #BreakUpFacebook and restore fair competition in digital markets.
2/ This comes on the heels of @RepCicilline’s historic investigation into Facebook and other platforms’ monopoly power.
Amazingly, breaking up (and regulating!) Facebook to protect democracy and commerce from its broad range of harms was seen as fringe back in 2018.
Amazingly, breaking up (and regulating!) Facebook to protect democracy and commerce from its broad range of harms was seen as fringe back in 2018.
3/ That’s why we launched @FreedomFromFB — to mainstream the notion that maintaining the status quo, in which one enormous monopoly controlled online communications to serve its own profit motives, was actually the extreme position.
4/ We found willing partners in a diverse set of national and grassroots groups — including @demandprogress, @afa_cwa, @Public_Citizen, @artistrightsnow, and @SumOfUs — and relentlessly drove a narrative around the need to break up Facebook to protect democracy.
5/ We published a full page ad in the MIT student paper while Sheryl Sandberg was giving a commencement speech highlighting Facebook’s monopoly power and social destruction: https://www.foxnews.com/tech/facebook-slammed-ahead-of-sheryl-sandbergs-mit-commencement-address
6/ We ran numerous digital ad campaigns, pushed members of Congress to haul in Zuckerberg & Sheryl and grill them on Facebook’s monopoly power, and talked with reporters hundreds of times, garnering headlines like these: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/05/opinion/facebook-china-privacy-data-security.html
7/ We put on our lawyer hats and filed a legal complaint with the @FTC: https://www.cnet.com/news/investigate-facebook-over-massive-breach-critic-urges-ftc/
8/ We even flew a plane (twice!) over Facebook HQ with a “You Broke Democracy” banner, which you can read about in the @NewYorker: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/09/17/can-mark-zuckerberg-fix-facebook-before-it-breaks-democracy
9/ And pretty soon…
10/ All of this was complemented by incredible intellectual and advocacy work from colleagues too numerous to name.
@matthewstoller and @ZephyrTeachout wrote prolifically on the need to focus on Facebook’s power and business model. https://www.thedailybeast.com/facebook-cant-be-fixed-it-needs-to-be-broken-up
@matthewstoller and @ZephyrTeachout wrote prolifically on the need to focus on Facebook’s power and business model. https://www.thedailybeast.com/facebook-cant-be-fixed-it-needs-to-be-broken-up
11/ @Sally_Hubbard kept the drumbeat up. https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/02/perspectives/big-tech-facebook-google-amazon-microsoft-antitrust/index.html
12/ @chrishughes pushed the debate into a new phase literally overnight. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/09/opinion/sunday/chris-hughes-facebook-zuckerberg.html
13/ @BrandingBrandi was out in front connecting Facebook’s monopoly power with its civil rights abuses. https://www.protocol.com/color-of-change-civil-rights-big-tech
14/ @chesterj1 sounded the alarm in real time against Facebook’s anti-competitive acquisitions while regulators looked the other way. https://www.wired.com/2016/08/whatsapp-privacy-facebook/
15/ The legal and intellectual work of @superwuster, @FrankPasquale, @DinaSrinivasan, and Barry Lynn were essential to arriving at this moment.
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3247362
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3247362
16/ And @linamkhan's original Yale Law Journal article on platforms & antitrust created space and coherence for using antitrust to address harms deriving from “free” services like Facebook in the first place. https://www.yalelawjournal.org/note/amazons-antitrust-paradox
17/ Since launcing @econliberties in February, we’ve made explaining how Facebook’s harms hinge on its monopoly power over digital advertising.
We’ve kept it simple and to the point: https://www.economicliberties.us/our-work/economic-liberties-explains-facebook-and-googles-toxic-business-model-and-how-to-hold-the-platforms-accountable/
We’ve kept it simple and to the point: https://www.economicliberties.us/our-work/economic-liberties-explains-facebook-and-googles-toxic-business-model-and-how-to-hold-the-platforms-accountable/
18/ And taken deep dives: https://www.economicliberties.us/our-work/addressing-facebook-and-googles-harms-through-a-regulated-competition-approach/
19/ And put it in a local context: https://www.economicliberties.us/our-work/close-to-home-how-the-power-of-facebook-and-google-affects-local-communities/
20/ And helped to convene an incredible, growing movement to make the case for breaking the power of Facebook, rather than solely trying to regulate its behavior: https://www.economicliberties.us/event/breaking-the-power-of-big-tech/
21/ @RepCicilline’s historic investigation, the DOJ antitrust suit against Google, & today’s AG and FTC cases against Facebook all send a message the country is desperate to hear: even the world’s most powerful corporations are no longer above the law. https://ag.ny.gov/press-release/2020/attorney-general-james-leads-multistate-lawsuit-seeking-end-facebooks-illegal
22/22 So much work remains to address America’s concentration crisis, but today we are so grateful for the growing number of leaders who are “leaning in” to address it. 
https://democracyjournal.org/magazine/end-monopoly-power/
https://democracyjournal.org/magazine/end-monopoly-power/
