Members of Congress finding agreement on a tech antitrust agenda

House Democrats and Republicans are finding common ground on a set of principles for countering tech monopolies that they believe could drive a bipartisan push in the new Congress to update antitrust law. Representatives from both parties are finding it easier to agree on antitrust policy ideas than on proposals about content moderation and liability, where the two parties couldn't be further apart despite agreeing on the need for change. Democrats and Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee's antitrust panel have zeroed in on at least four ideas:

1. More funding for key antitrust enforcers, chiefly the Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department, so they can take on wealthy, heavily lawyered tech companies.
2. Changing the burden of proof for proposed mergers so that companies whose market share passes a certain threshold are assumed to be monopolies and must prove their deal does not harm competition.
3. Data portability requirements for platforms, so that consumers can move their information from one service to another.
4. Prohibitions on platform bias and "self-preferencing," which is when information services display their own listings above those of competitors.