Elizabeth Warren outlines plans to break up 'Big Tech'

CBS Marketwatch

Elizabeth Warren, the U.S. senator running for president, on Friday outlined her plans to break up what she calls “Big Tech” in what could be considered the most sweeping salvo against the industry.

Warren, a frequent critic of big business, said in an article on Medium that companies like Facebook Inc. (FB, -0.47%) Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN, -0.99%) and Alphabet’s Google (GOOGL, -0.18% GOOG, -0.05%) have used mergers and proprietary marketplaces to limit competition.

Her plan would designate any online marketplace, exchange or platform for connecting third parties that is held by a company with global revenue of at least $25 billion a year as “platform utilities,” where companies would prohibiting from owning participants on that platforms, meet a standard of dealing with users and not be allowed to transfer or share data with third parties. Smaller companies would also face those same standards but wouldn’t have to structurally separate, according to the Warren plan.

Amazon Marketplace, Google’s ad exchange, and Google Search would be platform utilities under this law.