One of the key platform issues in the presidential campaign of Senator Elizabeth Warren has been breaking up giant tech companies like Facebook. She has said in speeches at various rallies that she believes Facebook to be a monopoly that should be broken up. She feels that they do not allow competition and this is bad for consumers. It also means that they will make very little effort to prevent the spread of disinformation on their platform. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was recently recorded during a private conversation where he said that he planned to sue the federal government if Warren won the presidential election and tried to break up his company.
The audio of Zuckerberg’s conversation was made public. According to The Verge, in response to the threat of legal action, Warren sent out a series of tweets that ripped into Facebook for selling the personal info of their users and destroying any competition. The Democratic presidential candidate has also targeted other big tech companies like Apple, Google and Amazon. She believes that the power of these companies has grown too great. Therefore, something has to be done to severely limit the amount of power and influence they have. This is why she has suggested breaking up the companies. Needless to say, companies like Facebook are not thrilled with this idea.
The companies that Warren is targeting are some of the wealthiest and most powerful in the world. Therefore, they have literally billions of dollars at their disposal to put together a team of the most skilled lawyers that money can buy. If Warren won the election and tried to break up these huge companies, they would not simply agree to it. There would be legal battles lasting literally years. In all likelihood, the lawsuits would not be settled during her term in office.
The reality is that Warren has little chance of becoming president. Joe Biden is polling far better than her on the Democratic side of things. Trump is spending more money than any of the Democratic candidates. Biden will most likely win the Democratic nomination. If Warren were to win the nomination, her chances of beating Trump are very small. However, it is clear that Mark Zuckerberg is not taking her lightly. Warren has used the audio clip of Zuckerberg in a video that she posted on her Instagram account. In the video, she says that she is feared by rich and powerful people.
