Monopoly is breaking America’s free press; it’s time to break monopoly

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Open Markets Institute calls on Congress and the Federal Trade Commission to immediately investigate how to protect America’s independent news media from the power and predatory business models of Google and Facebook. The two corporations routinely exploit their position as essential information platforms to divert vital advertising revenue away from the free press into their own pockets. What America’s journalists and citizens need is a regulatory environment that empowers publishers to deal directly with readers and advertisers, and to experiment with new subscription models without moment-to-moment meddling and manipulation by Google and Facebook. As Congress already knows, the Facebook and Google monopolies pose many other immediate and fundamental threats to our democracy, especially the role they play in broadcasting the lies and misinformation that disrupted the 2016 elections and that continue to tear at American society.


Monopoly is breaking America’s free press; it’s time to break monopoly