Law Enforcers Must Act Now to Block Facebook’s Anti-Democratic Threat to California Citizens
Facebook has threatened to deprive California’s citizens of a basic political right – to freely share news and information with one another.
WASHINGTON - Open Markets Institute Executive Director Barry Lynn released the following statement in regard to Facebook’s threat to cut off access to news in California Facebook feeds if lawmakers in the state pass the California Journalism Preservation Act:
“Yesterday, Facebook threatened to deprive California’s citizens of a basic political right – to freely share news and information with one another. This action proves the corporation poses a direct and immediate danger to American democracy, and demands an immediate response by the U.S. government. The Open Market Institute calls on the Federal Communications Commission, Department of Justice, and Federal Trade Commission to take immediate action to impose on Facebook the same basic rules the United States has applied to every previous provider of essential communications and commercial services in our history.
Let’s be honest. This is not the only threat Facebook poses to U.S. citizens. The corporation also steals billions of dollars in advertising from news publishers, distributes disinformation and propaganda for foreign governments including China and Russia, and routinely manipulates communications and commercial interactions between U.S. citizens. Nor are U.S. citizens the only people at risk. The global nature of this corporation means Facebook poses the same basic set of threats to people around world, including America’s closest political and security allies.
The good news is that the U.S. government has ample existing authority to act immediately. As Open Markets noted in recent testimony in the U.S. Senate, U.S. antimonopoly statutes provide a broad and robust foundation for action, and these three agencies (the FCC, DOJ, and FTC) each have an extensive history of aggressive action against similar threats. Better yet, we have a simple and clear fix, which is to impose the traditional common-carrier style regulations we have applied to the telegraph, telephone, internet, and to every essential transportation system since the establishment of the Postal Service in the U.S. Constitution.
We also urge California lawmakers to pass the Journalism Preservation Act and refuse to allow corporate monopolies to stand in the way of laws that will improve market fairness and strengthen our democracy.”
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The Open Markets Institute is a team of journalists, researchers, lawyers, economists, and advocates working together to expose and reverse the stranglehold that corporate monopolies have on our country. Learn more at www.openmarketsinstitute.org.