Tackle Internet censorship directly — not through antitrust law

[Commentary] Sewlyn Duke’s recent op-ed for The Hill, “Antitrust should be used to break up partisan tech giants like Facebook, Google,” addresses the serious problem of how a few privately owned internet companies have unprecedented control over the distribution of information. Breaking up the actual platforms would seriously harm consumers.

Google’s algorithm improves with more searches and Facebook’s users value the ability to connect with the other billion people on the network. Reducing their size eliminates these benefits without increasing free speech. Antitrust regulators recognize this type of economy of scale, known as network effects, when evaluating a company’s market concentration. Increased social media censorship did not result from the market share of any company or even the political ideology of its executives.

[Mark Epstein is an attorney practicing regulatory and antitrust law in Washington, D.C.]