Mike Davis: Freedom in the Online Marketplace
November 8, 2021
We all like to have options in life. Choices define us, whether it’s our next meal or the company we keep in our close circles. This is an important concept in every aspect of life, including how we use modern-day technology. In theory, shopping online should give us more choices. We should have easy access at our fingertips to the specific brands and products we prefer. It’s vital that we have full transparency and choice in our online marketplace, as we do in traditional brick-and mortar retail. But that’s not the case right now, when Big Tech titans such as Amazon violate these free-market principles. This monopolist regularly promotes its own products through its search algorithm, disadvantages its competitors, and even copies the products designed and created by these competitors, selling them under its own banner.
That’s why we need the American Choice and Innovation Online Act — a significant, bipartisan antitrust bill introduced by senators Amy Klobuchar (D., Minn.) and Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa) and representatives David Cicilline (D., R.I.) and Ken Buck (R., Colo.) — to pass into law, which would prohibit these practices.
This legislation codifies protections for small companies from the behemoth tech giants and their anticompetitive business practices in the online marketplace. This has been long overdue. Big Tech regularly self-preferences at the expense of these smaller businesses. This legislation would stop that.
READ MORE on National Review.
Sign up to stay informed
Unlike the Big Tech monopolies, the Internet Accountability Project pledges to never sell or share your personal information, which is your property.