DoJ to Congress: Thumbs up for big tech antitrust bill

A letter from the Department of Justice to Congress makes it clear where the Biden administration stands on antitrust legislation targeting big tech: They're all for it. The letter was penned by Peter Hyun, the DoJ's acting assistant attorney general for legislative affairs. As part of his role, Hyun's office regularly issues …

[Pascal Monett]

"Amazon, Apple, Google [..] have expressed their dissatisfaction"

Good.

That means that the bill has some teeth, so it's a Good Thing^TM.

Avast, me hearties ! We'll bring those scurvy dogs in line yet !

Arrr !

[DS999]

Re: "Amazon, Apple, Google [..] have expressed their dissatisfaction"

"Dissatisfaction" isn't what I'd expect if the bill had teeth. I'd expect screaming from the rooftops.

If they're just "dissatisfied" then they either see loopholes or are confident with sufficient lobbying bribes donations they will get them.

[HildyJ]

Good, but

If either of the bills could be enacted it would definitely be good.

But might often beats right and money and jobs are the lifeblood of many politicians.

In the US Congressional system, it is too easy to block consideration of even bipartisan bills and I fear that will be the fate of these.

[eldakka]

businesses have a legitimate defense if they believe their actions were necessary to prevent a violation of the law, protect user privacy and safety, secure data, secure the platform or maintain or enhance core functionality of the platform.

That loophole is big enough for a Russian Oligarchs yet to sail through, sideways.

Aside: Hey, that might be a good el'Reg unit of corruption, the Russian Oligarch yacht.

[HenryCrun]

Will this let us dump Edge? :-)

So "AICOA prohibits tech companies from favoring their own products", will this stop Microsoft from forcing their applications over third party ones? Could this be used to force Microsoft to de-couple Egde from Windows? Will Microsoft just stick to making an operating system and let the user decide on which applications to install?

Answers to be provided the day after hell freezes over I expect.