Elizabeth Warren pledges to break up Amazon — and more — if elected president
Break up Amazon? That's what Sen. Elizabeth Warren is proposing.
She issued a campaign pledge on Friday that if she's elected president she'll push to break up big tech companies like Amazon, Facebook and Google.
In a post on Medium, Warren said those companies have too much power over e-commerce and Internet traffic.
Her plan would divide large tech platforms from any participant on that platform.
For Amazon, that would mean undoing its mergers with Whole Foods and Zappos.
Facebook would have to split off WhatsApp and Instagram, and Google would have to unwind itself from Nest, Waze and DoubleClick.
An Amazon representative said by email that the company would not comment.
Here's the core of Warren's proposal:
"Companies with an annual global revenue of $25 billion or more and that offer to the public an online marketplace, an exchange, or a platform for connecting third parties would be designated as 'platform utilities.'
"These companies would be prohibited from owning both the platform utility and any participants on that platform. Platform utilities would be required to meet a standard of fair, reasonable, and nondiscriminatory dealing with users. Platform utilities would not be allowed to transfer or share data with third parties."
Warren also said she would appoint federal regulators committed to breaking up what she called anti-competitive mergers, using existing tools.
Warren argued that federal anti-monopoly pressure on Microsoft in the 1990s helped pave the way for Internet companies like Google.
Amazon has disrupted commerce across a wide swath of products. But consumers still rank it as one of the most trusted institutions in America. A recent episode of the KUOW podcast Prime(d) explored that trust.
Warren, a senator from Massachusetts, is one of more than a dozen Democrats seeking the party's nomination for the presidency. National polls put her far behind former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont. Washington Gov. Jay Inslee is also running.
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Gil Aegerter
Gil edits feature pieces and helps guide staff reporters through their stories. He previously served as interim digital director and online managing editor at KUOW. Before that he spent seven years with NBCNews.com, where he was variously a senior editor, editor-producer and features editor. He also worked 25 years as a newspaper editor in Anchorage, Alaska, San Diego, Wilmington, N.C., and Seattle. He also was a freelance researcher for NBC Olympics for the Games in Atlanta; Sydney, Australia; Salt Lake City; Athens; and Torino, Italy. He is a graduate of the University of Alaska-Fairbanks, with a degree in photojournalism.
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