Sen Warner (D-VA) on Breaking Up Facebook and Congress's Plan to Regulate Tech

An Oct 23 interview with Sen Mark Warner (D-VA).

In the summer of 2018, Sen Warner put out the most comprehensive plan yet for how Congress might regulate Big Tech. His white paper laid out 20 different suggestions, ranging from labeling bots to implementing broader rules like those in the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). When asked, "In your white paper, something you didn’t bring up was breaking up Facebook. Why didn’t you include that?" Sen Warner said, "I’ve thought about that. I think in many ways, these companies have as much power, if not more power, than the largest enterprises in the beginning of the 20th century, when you have the oil companies and other monopolies...I see breakup as more of a last resort. Also, we could look at companies more on a domestic scene...In a world-based economy, you can’t look at these only on a national basis. My fear is that the Chinese companies, which are frankly on a growth rate even faster than Facebook, Google, and Twitter’s growth, don’t have any of the constraints of the other companies." Sen Warner also indicated he was against nationalizing large tech companies.