Slashdot Mirror
Senator Orrin Hatch Asks FTC To Investigate Competitive Effects of Google's Conduct in Search and Digital Advertising (thehill.com)
Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) is calling on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate whether Google's search and digital advertising practices are stifling the marketplace. From a report: Hatch sent a letter to FTC [PDF] Chairman Joseph Simons expressing concern about reports in recent years ranging from Google restricting competing advertising services to collecting data from users' Gmail inbox contents. "Needless to say, I found these reports disquieting," Hatch wrote. "Although these reports concern different aspects of Google's business, many relate to the company's dominant position in search and accumulating vast amounts of personal data." The letter comes at a time when critics of Google's market power are gaining momentum, helped along by growing concerns over data privacy. But most of the lawmakers echoing those concerns have been Democrats and Hatch, the longest-serving member of the Senate, may be the highest-profile Republican to call for the government to take antitrust action against Google.
That, and it's a big target at a time where POTUS is looking for enemies he can vilify to distract from is own problems.
Orrin Hatch, one of the architects of striping both the FTC and FCC of their ability to regulate business is asking the FTC to investigate Google because they are mean to "conservatives".
The irony is palpable with a man who's spent his career defanging governments ability to go after monopolies asking government to investigate when they don't have the authority to do a damn thing and he knows it because he was instrumental in taking those abilities away.
But Hatch is a sycophant who finally proved he didn't have any morals and he proved it when he got down on his knees and serviced Trump. It's a good thing he's retiring because he shat all over his legacy the last 4 years.