REUTERS/Joshua Roberts
U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
- Attorney General Jeff Sessions is exploring the possibility of an investigation into US tech giants, Bloomberg reported.
- Sessions will be briefed on September 25 by Republican state attorneys general.
- Bloomberg reports that Sessions has not yet made his mind up about how to proceed, but that one of the attending attorneys general wants to break up the big tech companies.
There's a little more insight into US Attorney General Jeff Sessions' cryptic announcement that he planned to discuss whether Silicon Valley firms were stifling free speech and competition.
According to Bloomberg, Sessions is, as widely speculated, open to the possibility of an investigation into companies such as Google, Facebook, and Twitter.
Citing two people familiar with the matter, Bloomberg reported that Sessions will be briefed on September 25 by Republican state attorneys general who have already been scrutinizing social media firms.
Sessions has reportedly not made up his mind yet on an investigation, but at least one attorney general is agitating to break up big tech firms.
Sessions announced he was summoning state attorneys general last week over concerns that tech giants may be infringing antitrust and free speech laws.
This came after President Trump accused Google of instilling left-wing bias into its search results, and subsequently suggested that giant tech companies could represent a "very antitrust situation."
Google dismantled Trump's claims, but a chorus of voices on America's right has grown louder in claiming anti-conservative bias in tech. That chorus appears to be echoing all the way to Washington.
Neither Trump nor Sessions gave any details of monopolistic practices, but Google was recently fined in Europe thanks to its dominance in mobile and online advertising. Facebook has similarly been criticised for monopolising social media by acquiring Instagram and WhatsApp.
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