“In its filings with the federal court in Virginia, Google has essentially admitted its illegal monopolization of the multi-billion-dollar market for online advertising. Through its anticompetitive and illegal misconduct, Google has defrauded the American public, small businesses, and federal and state governments by jacking up online advertising prices and misrepresenting the effectiveness of its online advertising business.

“While Google’s settlement number remains hidden from the public, it is hard to imagine it is anything close to reasonable given Google’s $250 billion in ill-gotten gains.

“We commend Jonathan Kanter, the Justice Department’s chief antitrust law-enforcement officer, for his bold vision and leadership in holding accountable trillion-dollar Big Tech monopolists, like Google, that have gatekeeping power over information and commerce. We also commend Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton for joining this crucial bipartisan effort.

“With Google’s admissions in its filings, the next important step should be the enforcement of the False Claims Act and the debarment of Google from doing business with federal and state governments.”

IAP is a nonprofit conservative advocacy group that holds Big Tech accountable for engaging in egregious business practices like snooping, spying, political bias against conservatives, employee abuses and anticompetitive conduct. Davis previously served as Chief Counsel for Nominations to Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) on the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary and led the Senate confirmation of Justice Brett Kavanaugh and a record number of circuit court judges. More information on Davis and IAP can be found here.

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“Free markets require functioning markets. This requires enforcement of our century-old antitrust laws to target anticompetitive tumors.

“Today’s FTC antitrust lawsuit against Amazon is a crucial step to rein in a trillion-dollar Big Tech monopolist that is illegally using its massive market power to crush competition and shutter small businesses,” said Davis.

IAP is a nonprofit conservative advocacy group that holds Big Tech accountable for engaging in egregious business practices like snooping, spying, political bias against conservatives, employee abuses and anticompetitive conduct. Davis previously served as Chief Counsel for Nominations to Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) on the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary and led the Senate confirmation of Justice Brett Kavanaugh and a record number of circuit court judges. More information on Davis and IAP can be found here.

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“Google’s outrageous decision to censor Outkick and Tomi Lahren for expressing her views on COVID vaccines shouldn’t come as a surprise. Google’s online video monopoly (YouTube) allows it to pick and choose viewpoints to censor or promote based on politics or pressure from the Biden administration, not consumer choice as expressed through market competition. The censorship czars at Google shouldn’t have the power to determine which political views Americans are able to access online. If YouTube and Google were competitors, instead of one company after Google’s acquisition of YouTube, neither company would censor Lahren or Outkick because they would be competing for conservative consumers. The marketplace of ideas cannot truly succeed as long as Big Tech oligarchs like Google have their finger on the censorship button, with nobody to hold them accountable. It’s long past time to break up Big Tech and allow the free exchange of viewpoints online,” said Davis.

IAP is a nonprofit conservative advocacy group that holds Big Tech accountable for engaging in egregious business practices like snooping, spying, political bias against conservatives, employee abuses and anticompetitive conduct. Davis previously served as Chief Counsel for Nominations to Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) on the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary and led the Senate confirmation of Justice Brett Kavanaugh and a record number of circuit court judges. More information on Davis and IAP can be found here.

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“Andrew Ferguson is a fantastic pick for the Federal Trade Commission. He is the Virginia Solicitor General and has served as the tip of the spear to hold Google accountable for its illegal monopolization of the online advertising market, which is the lifeblood that Big Tech uses to censor, silence, deplatform, and cancel conservatives and others with whom they disagree. Andrew is also a former colleague and friend who helped President Trump transform the federal judiciary, including a leading Senate role in the confirmations of Justice Kavanaugh and Justice Barrett. The Internet Accountability Project strongly endorses Andrew’s nomination.

“Melissa Holyoak has impressive legal credentials and a strong conservative track record including using consumer protection laws to fight back against ESG madness. While Holyoak does not have the Big Tech antitrust track record that Ferguson does, IAP is cautiously optimistic that Holyoak understands the critical job of the federal antitrust law enforcers is to protect the free market from the blatant market abuses of trillion-dollar Big Tech monopolists Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Apple.

“The two current antitrust lawsuits against Google prove you can hold Big Tech accountable while upholding the consumer welfare standard,” said Davis.

IAP is a nonprofit conservative advocacy group that holds Big Tech accountable for engaging in egregious business practices like snooping, spying, political bias against conservatives, employee abuses and anticompetitive conduct. Davis previously served as Chief Counsel for Nominations to Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) on the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary and led the Senate confirmation of Justice Brett Kavanaugh and a record number of circuit court judges. More information on Davis and IAP can be found here.

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“After the last Congress failed to pass this piece of legislation, we are pleased to see the American Innovation and Choice Online Act be reintroduced in the 118th Congress. The Internet Accountability Project thanks Senators Grassley and Klobuchar for their leadership on reining in Big Tech. 

“The American Innovation and Choice Online Act bans self-preferencing by Big Tech and frees up small businesses to compete on a level playing field. This bipartisan legislation levels the playing field and enacts standards for Big Tech that apply to every other industry and sector in our country.

“The key to a healthy free market—as well as a functioning society and democracy—is openness, competition and the rule of law. Right now, all are under threat. Big Tech is crushing small businesses, stifling innovation and silencing its political opponents. Congress must act immediately and pass this critical bipartisan bill,” Davis said.

An op-ed from Mike Davis on the American Choice and Innovation Online Act can be found here, and additional information and resources on IAP’s efforts to break up Big Tech can be found here.

IAP is a nonprofit conservative advocacy group that holds Big Tech accountable for engaging in egregious business practices like snooping, spying, political bias against conservatives, employee abuses and anticompetitive conduct. Davis previously served as Chief Counsel for Nominations to Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) on the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary and led the Senate confirmation of Justice Brett Kavanaugh and a record number of circuit court judges. More information on Davis and IAP can be found here.

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“Elon Musk is a principled tech entrepreneur who put his money where his mouth was and restored free speech on Twitter. But online free speech shouldn’t depend on bad investments by benevolent billionaires or the whims of new CEOs. 

“Without a massive number of paid subscribers, advertiser boycotts could crush Twitter at any time, Google and Apple could boot Twitter from the App Store duopoly, and Amazon could boot Twitter off the internet. This is exactly what all three did to Parler, a startup competitor to Twitter that threatened the Democrats’ monopoly power over online information. 

“It is crucial that Congress passes bipartisan antitrust reforms to rein in Big Tech’s power to destroy Twitter and our online free speech rights,” said Davis.

The Internet Accountability Project is a conservative grassroots advocacy organization that opposes Big Tech and seeks to hold these companies accountable for their bad acts.

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“The Advertising Middlemen Endangering Rigorous Internet Competition Accountability Act will break up Google’s online advertising monopoly. This bill from Senator Mike Lee is a silver bullet in the battle to dismantle Big Tech. Senate and House leadership must consider this legislation if they’re serious about combating the threat Big Tech poses to our online freedoms, economic innovation, and small business prosperity. Republicans like Mike Lee are leading on this issue–his colleagues in Congress who claim to be conservative warriors against Big Tech must join him,” said Davis.

According to Senator Mike Lee (R-UT), the “bill would restore and protect competition in digital advertising by eliminating conflicts of interest that have allowed the leading platforms in the market to manipulate ad auctions and impose monopoly rents on a broad swath of the American economy.”

The Internet Accountability Project is a conservative grassroots advocacy organization that opposes Big Tech and seeks to hold these companies accountable for their bad acts.

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“Utah is taking a brave stand on behalf of families to protect children from the harmful effects of addictive social media apps. Even though Big Tech and their allies will certainly sue the state of Utah over these commonsense protections, Governor Cox signed the legislation and he should be commended for sticking up for Utah families. Senators Kirk Cullimore and Michael McKell, along with Rep. Jordan Teuscher, deserve special recognition for leading these bills through both houses of the Utah legislature.

“As the father of a young daughter, it is frightening that social media apps can bypass any sort of parental engagement and directly target children with addicting features that feed them harmful content. Congress must immediately consider and pass similar protections and take a meaningful step towards protecting families rather than protecting Big Tech’s profits. In the meantime, other Republican governors should follow Utah’s lead and advocate for their own version of this law. Everyone must contact their elected officials and urge them to bring similar legislation to each state legislature nationwide. The years of social media companies preying on our children to pad their extraordinary profits are coming to a close,” said Chamberlain.

Utah Senate Bill 152 would require children under the age of 18 to receive permission from parents or guardians before opening a social media account while banning those under 16 from opening accounts. That protection would go into effect on March 1, 2024, giving companies plenty of time to establish a working process to comply with the law.

Utah House Bill 311 would, among other provisions, restrict social media companies from implementing features inside of their apps that are addictive to children.

The Internet Accountability Project is a conservative grassroots advocacy organization that opposes Big Tech and seeks to hold these companies accountable for their bad acts.

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