NY TIMES
Senator Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts Democrat who is bidding to be the policy pacesetter in the Democratic presidential primary, championed an expansive idea on Friday evening in front of a crowd of thousands in Queens: a regulatory plan aimed at breaking up some of America’s largest tech companies, including Amazon, Google, Apple and Facebook.
At a rally in Long Island City, the neighborhood that was to be home to a major new Amazon campus, Ms. Warren laid out her proposal calling for regulators who would undo some tech mergers, as well as legislation that would prohibit platforms from both offering a marketplace for commerce and participating in that marketplace.
“We have these giants corporations — do I have to tell that to people in Long Island City? — that think they can roll over everyone,” Ms. Warren told the crowd, drawing applause. She compared Amazon to the dystopian novel “The Hunger Games,” in which those with power force their wishes on the less fortunate.
“I’m sick of freeloading billionaires,” she said.
Ms. Warren’s policy announcement sent reverberations from New York to Silicon Valley, as she further cemented herself as one of the Democratic candidates most willing to call for large-scale changes to the country’s structure in the name of equality.
Among the crowded field of Democrats seeking the presidential nomination, Ms. Warren has done the most to add detail to those early proposals, including a plan for universal child care, a tax on the country’s wealthiest families, and, as of Friday, breaking up big technological giants.
Ms. Warren’s regulatory plan would also force the rollback of some acquisitions by tech giants, the campaign said, including Facebook’s deals for WhatsApp and Instagram, Amazon’s addition of Whole Foods, and Google’s purchase of Waze. Companies would be barred from transferring or sharing users’ data with third parties. Dual entities, such as Amazon Marketplace and AmazonBasics, would be split apart.
Read MICHAEL TOMASKY, DAILY BEAST : Elizabeth Warren Is Running for President. The Other 2020 Democrats Are Just Jockeying for Position.
Ms. Warren’s policy announcement sent reverberations from New York to Silicon Valley, as she further cemented herself as one of the Democratic candidates most willing to call for large-scale changes to the country’s structure in the name of equality.
Among the crowded field of Democrats seeking the presidential nomination, Ms. Warren has done the most to add detail to those early proposals, including a plan for universal child care, a tax on the country’s wealthiest families, and, as of Friday, breaking up big technological giants.
Ms. Warren’s regulatory plan would also force the rollback of some acquisitions by tech giants, the campaign said, including Facebook’s deals for WhatsApp and Instagram, Amazon’s addition of Whole Foods, and Google’s purchase of Waze. Companies would be barred from transferring or sharing users’ data with third parties. Dual entities, such as Amazon Marketplace and AmazonBasics, would be split apart.
Read MICHAEL TOMASKY, DAILY BEAST : Elizabeth Warren Is Running for President. The Other 2020 Democrats Are Just Jockeying for Position.