What Will Happen to Big Tech Under a New Administration?

It is a bit unclear. Last time around he railed against big tech. During the campaign he floated a love fest with crypto. Here are some cases that are in doubt.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau took steps to put Google under formal federal supervision. This would give the feds access to very sensitive Google data. So what might the next president do? Well, he never was a fan of the CFPB or any federal regulations that restrict businesses from doing whatever they want to do, even if that harms consumers, so that is a strike against this. On the other hand, he hates Google even more and gaining access to their data and using it against them, publicly might be attractive even if it is illegal, so which way is this going to go? Not sure.

In another case, a federal judge allowed a lawsuit against Meta to move forward. The lawsuit accuses them of holding an illegal monopoly power over social media. He certainly doesn’t like Meta since it is a direct competitor to his social media platform. Less enforcement? Hurt Meta? Again, not clear.

The FTC announced it was investigating Microsoft’s cloud (Azure and Office 365) for anticompetitive practices, stifling innovation. Will the DoJ and FTC pursue this to hurt Microsoft just because? Maybe.

These are just a few cases that are in different stages of prosecution. There are hundreds of these cases, big and small, that prosecutors need to be told by 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue what to do. In the next administration there will be no dividing line between the White House and DoJ. The president elect has publicly said that he plans retribution. When he was on the other side of that coin, he called it weaponization of the Justice Department. Now it is okay; even sanctioned. Stay tuned. We don’t know how this will play out. Credit: Cybernews

by