State Attorneys General Back Consumer Protection Fight vs. Big Tech

Eric Scheiner | March 16, 2021
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State attorneys general Ken Paxton, Lynn Fitch, and Leslie Rutledge all supported using consumer protection laws to fight Big Tech.  The moves coincide with Media Research Center’s calls for antitrust action against Big Tech for "canceling conservatives." 

“Eighty one percent of Americans now believe that big tech needs to be regulated, that there needs to be antitrust regulation to wake those companies up,” MRC President Brent Bozell said in a recent video conference.

“They are far too powerful. They're the most powerful companies in the history of man, I believe. And they are they are now deciding winners and losers. They are now interfering in the single most basic right of all Americans, which is the right of free speech. So if you if you say something contrary to the narrative you shut down -  or in fact, you're just thrown off the platform altogether. We recently sent a letter out to all the states attorney generals asking for the states to take action on this on this front.”

Bozell says at least 18 states are taking action, among them are Texas, Mississippi and Arkansas.

RELATED: TechShark: Will Chamberlain - Can Free Speech Online Be A Civil Right?

“I’ve spent a lot of time looking at different companies and traveled and interviewed professors and experts and lawyers and people that had experience dealing with antitrust,” Texas AG Ken Paxton said. “We came to the conclusion that the very first case we needed to file was a case against Google. It was based on monopolistic behavior and absolute control of advertising, a company that makes over one hundred and sixty billion dollars a year and controls almost all the advertising  - representing the buyers, sellers and the exchange. I compare it in very simple terms, would be like if you're watching a baseball game and the pitcher, the catcher, the batter, the umpire will play for the same team. That's what we've got going with Google and that’s why we’ve sued them.”

Miss. AG Lynn Fitch said, “Big tech is just a small group of uncensored, unchecked individuals who decide they want to silence us.”

“They have no regulatory authority but yet, in fact, they do that. But they do it day in and day out. And I'm sure most of us know someone, or business that has been involved in being censored. And why do they do that? Just because they can. They can choose to silence us, just because they can.”

“So all of us on the attorney general front are pushing back against big tech,” Ark. AG Leslie Rutledge added.

“We are part of these lawsuits, part of these investigations as antitrust violations, but we're also being proactive in our respective states.”

“I introduced legislation in Arkansas called AR Voices or “Our” Voices, and it's to combat the council culture and to protect free speech. And essentially what this legislation will do if passed into law, will allow the state of Arkansas to push back against those social media platforms or others who look to cancel constituents and their free speech for no good reason. The law gives the authority to the attorney general, in this instance, myself and my office, to seek penalties under the Arkansas Deceptive Trade Practices Act  with a penalty of  ten thousand dollars per violation.”

You can watch clips of the video press conference above.

 

MRCTV is a division of the Media Research Center.

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