The Justice Department is finally set to being its long - rumour reassessment of monopoly concerns in the domain of online hunting , ecommerce , and societal medium , specifically targeting big technical school companies such as Google , Amazon , Facebook , and Apple . An exceptionally wide investigation , the agencyannouncedthis good afternoon it would seek to learn if such companies had “ reduce contender , stifled invention , or otherwise harmed consumers . ”
The FTC and DOJ , which both have antitrust powers , have been prepping for action against these mega - corporations formonths , divvying up which office would follow up on which tech giant . Some of the companies being poke into by the DOJ , like Amazon , were ab initio believed to go down under the view of the FTC alone , lending heightened seriousness to the review . The full extent of action from either agency , however , remain largely open - concluded , and it ’s potential both agencies may prosecute separate probes into the same companies .
News of the DOJ ’s move comes less than two weeks after the FTCfinedFacebook for $ 5 billion over its handling of the Cambridge Analytica scandal — a wrist slap congressional Democrats found woefully inadequate — and hours after the Washington Postreportedthe representation had approved unprecedented oversight measuring rod over Facebook ’s seclusion policies .
Photo: Drew Angerer (Getty)
Accordingto the Wall Street Journal , the DOJ has already apply closed - threshold hearings to receive testimony from critic of Facebook .
“ If violations of law are identified , ” the DOJ wrote this afternoon , “ the Department will continue appropriately to seek redress , ” which would include issues outside the scope of antitrust that are nonetheless discovered during the process of their research .
Apple , Amazon , Alphabet , and Facebook stocks all took a dip on release of the news and , if you listen closely with your ear towards the West seacoast , you could hear the sound of a thousand buttholes clenching .
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