Jeff Sessions to examine Trump theory big tech censors conservatives

President
Donald Trump speaks with Attorney General Jeff
Sessions.
Reuters/Kevin
Lamarque

• The most powerful lawyer in the US is threatening to
  investigate Silicon Valley over freedom of speech and antitrust
  issues.
• Attorney General Jeff Sessions said he was gathering
  state attorney generals to discuss big tech following Trump’s
  Twitter tirades on Google last week.
• This should alarm tech firms because that means a
  Republican conspiracy theory about a liberal bias in tech seems
  to have evolved into a high-level Justice Department
  discussion.
• That conspiracy might be the catalyst that breaks up
  big tech.

The US government’s sniping at Silicon Valley took an unexpected
and serious turn on Wednesday when the most powerful lawyer in
the country, attorney general Jeff Sessions, made ominous noises
about monopolistic behaviour and censorship.

In a statement on Wednesday,
the Department of Justice said (emphasis ours):

“The attorney general has convened a meeting with a number of
state attorneys general this month to discuss a growing concern
that these companies may be hurting competition
and intentionally stifling the free exchange of
ideas on their platforms.”

There are two issues Sessions appears to be concerned with. One
is that some tech firms, though he doesn’t say which, are
monopolies. The other is that they stifle free speech.

The latter is a Republican talking point that has gained ground
after President Donald Trump
accused both Google and Twitter of stifling right-wing
voices, though without much proof.

As an example, he
falsely claimed that Google promoted Barack Obama’s State of the
Union address, but not his own. He also claimed Twitter was
“shadow banning” prominent Republicans, something Twitter has
denied and
which has been debunked.

It is true that Twitter did suspend right-wing conspiracy
theorist Alex Jones from its platform for seven days, though he
is active once more and freely posting videos on YouTube. The
conservative press has interpreted his suspension as a free
speech issue, despite the fact Jones demonstrably
violated Twitter’s policies.

Free speech might be a Trojan horse being used to breakup big
tech

Trump and Sessions may have had
their differences recently, but the attorney general seems to
be picking up the baton from the President’s Twitter tirades on
tech. There are two things about Sessions’ intervention that
should alarm Silicon Valley.

One is that what is effectively an emotive Republican conspiracy
can evolve into a high-level Justice Department discussion. The
other is that the confected free speech issue might be a Trojan
horse to breakup big tech.

Sessions said in his statement that he wanted to discuss how tech
firms might be stifling competition, an issue which is quite
separate from whether they violate the First Amendment.

The three obvious candidates for any antitrust investigation
would be Amazon, with its dominance of retail, Google, with its
dominance of search and online ads, and Facebook for its
dominance of social media.

Many have made the case recently that
Facebook should be separated from Instagram and WhatsApp, and
that
Google is the digital equivalent to big oil monopolies.

Up until now, it has not looked likely that the US would launch
any antitrust investigation into three hugely successful
homegrown firms. And it seemed especially unlikely that it would
be the Republicans who triggered any kind of probe.

But Republican sensitivity to perceived bias, and tech firms’
central role in the Russian misinformation scandal — which has
been hotly pursued by Democrats — mean there is a bipartisan
appetite to scrutinise tech companies.

Big tech is in the dock.

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