US: States met with DOJ on antitrust action against social media giants

The representatives of 13 states plus the District of Columbia met with top Justice Department officials to discuss what could result in a comprehensive, federal government antitrust effort against the country’s top social media companies, reported Reuters and BuzzFeed.

According to Reuters, the meeting focused on how tech companies handle user data and whether privacy issues can be addressed using antitrust law, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said.

“The conversation really zeroed in on privacy,” he said. “We talked about having some more conversation… The principle conversation revolved around privacy and antitrust.”

The attorneys general of Alabama, California, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Nebraska, Tennessee, and Utah attended, as well as representatives from the offices of Arkansas, Arizona, Missouri, Texas, and Washington.

The DOJ originally announced the meeting in the immediate aftermath of a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing that quizzed Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey about their policies. While that hearing never addressed whether the social media platforms discriminated against conservative viewpoints, it came after Apple, Google, and Facebook had banned right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who during a break berated Florida Senator Marco Rubio (Republican), claiming that tech companies’ decision to ban him from their platforms was evidence those companies are “purging conservatives.”

Becerra said he expects a larger group of state attorneys general to address the issue at an upcoming meeting of the National Association of Attorneys General.

Full Content: Reuters, Buzz Feed News