A top Google executive on Friday criticized a major forthcoming antitrust bill in the Senate, warning that the American Innovation and Choice Online Act could have "unintended consequences" that break "a range of popular products that people use everyday."
"We're not opposed to antitrust scrutiny or updated regulations and we encourage Congress to take up the challenge of acting on areas of widespread agreement, like protecting Americans' privacy and updating protections for children," Google's vice president of government affairs Mark Isakowitz said in a statement posted to Twitter. "But just like the controversial package in the House, this bill doesn't address the real issues - rather, it would break a wide range of helpful services from leading American companies, while making those services less safe, less private and less secure."
The bipartisan Senate bill, which is set to be introduced next week by Sens. Amy Klobuchar, Chuck Grassley and Dick Durbin, would prohibit large tech companies from self-preferencing their own goods and services on platforms they own. That includes "biasing search results in favor of the dominant firm."
"Our country faces a monopoly problem, and American consumers, workers, and businesses are paying the price," Klobuchar said in a statement this week. "We must put policies in place to ensure small businesses and entrepreneurs still have the opportunity to succeed in the digital marketplace."
Climate TRACE's data show emissions at the facility-level.Image: Climate TRACE