Open Markets Calls on US Agencies to Investigate Elon Musk’s Ownership of Twitter and Starlink
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: November 17, 2022
CONTACT: Ashley Woolheater, woolheater@openmarketsinstitute.org
“No democracy can survive if its citizens allow one or few private individuals to seize control over the public square.”
WASHINGTON- The Open Markets Institute sent a letter to the heads of the Department of Justice (DOJ), Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and Federal Communications Commission (FCC), urging the agencies to lead the U.S. government in a full review of Elon Musk’s purchase and management of Twitter and his ongoing management of Starlink – including his abuse (and ability to abuse) these powerful communications platforms for his own personal, political, and business interests.
The letter argues that Twitter is an essential communications platform that “plays irreplaceable role in enabling citizens to communicate and to debate key issues of the day.” “Yet now, people in the United States and around the world are watching a single man radically alter this essential communications platform to favor his own personal interests and political views,” Open Markets wrote in the letter.
Open Markets cites Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy who wrote in 1994 that free speech has, at times, required government protection from corporate or “private” consolidation of power and influence, and Justice Hugo Black’s assurance in 1945 that antimonopoly enforcement against powerful communications platforms does not constitute infringement of free speech or of the press. It cites U.S government interventions in the early- to mid-20th Century to ensure telephone giant AT&T did not also control other large communications verticals, as Musk now does with both Twitter and Starlink.
The Open Markets Institute warned early on that allowing Elon Musk to purchase and manage Twitter presents serious risks to democracy, free speech, and security in the U.S. and around the world. Open Markets has also long taken the lead in challenging monopolistic threats to freedom of speech and the press.
Read the full letter below or download here.
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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.