Big Tech companies must be regulated to restore free speech and protect America's democracy, Colorado Republican Rep. Ken Buck warns.
In a commentary for the Daily Caller, Buck wrote that "monopolies" such as Apple, Facebook, Google, and Amazon pose "a risk that America can't afford."
"Americans remember from their history lessons that monopolists in the late 19th and early 20th centuries controlled energy, finance, steel, and commercial transportation," he wrote. "The new crop of corporations own the platforms that control communication.
"These monopolies control the dissemination of information and infringe on the free flow of ideas. That means today's Big Tech monopolies threaten the core of our political system. They have the power to control the information that is available to the public and shape that information to benefit their own commercial interests and political views."
As a result, Buck said, Big Tech firms "along with their little brother Twitter" have become "the gatekeepers to the marketplace of ideas."
"I believe all Americans value the free flow of information and the principles of individual liberty more than they value same-day shipping," he wrote.
"I believe that while many Americans love social media and the convenience of search engines, the majority would be horrified by the thought of Facebook, Google, or Twitter owners deciding what subjects are permissible to discuss — or which news articles are okay to share, and which are banned."
"I believe that these citizens have faith in a system that gives ownership to the inventors of new ideas and businesses and doesn't let big businesses like Amazon just steal ideas or crush upstarts with impunity," he charged.
Buck lamented the power of Big Tech's business models "result in the selective dissemination of information and infringe on the free flow of ideas."
"No one — conservative or liberal — should be comfortable with a few Silicon Valley oligarchs having a monopoly over the marketplace of ideas, and with it, democracy itself," he wrote.
Buck asserted that despite denials of political bias in Google’s search engine, a 2018 report from PJ Media suggested otherwise.
In a search on the term "Trump," results "returned an overwhelming number of articles from left-of-center outlets … There were no right-leaning sites listed," Buck lamented.
Buck's commentary comes as Senate Commerce Committee Chair Ted Cruz, R-Texas, vowed to investigate Big Tech's censorship of conservatives following Newsmax getting dropped by DirecTV.
In Buck's commentary, he also referred to Kentucky GOP Sen. Rand Paul getting locked out of his Facebook page for going against the platform's "community standards." He also cited a suspension from Twitter for questioning the effectiveness of masks, and had videos removed from YouTube.
Also, Buck noted, GOP Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson was temporarily blocked from YouTube for remarks about COVID treatments, and Indiana GOP Rep. Jim Banks was suspended for two weeks after mocking Time magazine for giving a Woman of the Year award to a transgender woman.
"With Big Tech's massive financial resources and command of critical digital media, these companies are positioned to dominate and distort not only financial and transactional marketplaces but most importantly, the marketplace of ideas," Buck wrote.
"This threat to free speech is a risk that America can't afford."