Professor Olivier Sylvain was quoted in an article from the Observer about the bipartisan support for increased regulation of “Big Tech” and the rare opportunity this creates for cooperation between politicians from both parties.
But such is the power of Silicon Valley. Big technology companies’ increasingly profound hold on Americans’ data and their lives is leading the likes of Trump, Warren and lesser names in both of their parties to agree that something must be done—even if neither they nor their colleagues in Congress and fellow presidential hopefuls can agree on exactly what.
Alleging the social network used discriminatory housing practices while collecting $55 billion in ads last year, HUD’s complaint is one of the strongest moves yet taken against a big tech company by government regulators during any administration—and it came a day after Trump met with Google CEO Sundar Pichai, whose company he has accused of favoring Democrats in search engine results and (somehow) favoring China.
“Even Ben Carson knows something is going on,” said Olivier Sylvain, a professor of law at Fordham University and an expert and frequent commentator on antitrust law and tech firms.
“People are more and more thinking about the scope and power of tech companies and realizing they’re the biggest intermediaries in our lives,” he added. “This is a cue now, for Democrats or whomever, that [regulators]are not as heeled and not taken by technology companies for their own sake.”