PrairiePundit

  Daily Torch: A group of 19 Republican Attorneys General led by Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich and Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson have threatened the $10 trillion hedge fund BlackRock with antitrust legal action in an Aug. 4 letter to BlackRock CEO Larry Fink accusing the company of “intentionally restrain[ing] and harm[ing] the competitiveness of the energy markets” with its market dominance of retirement investments. Brnovich and Peterson added, “coordinated conduct with other financial institutions to impose net-zero [carbon emissions by 2050] … raises antitrust concerns. Group boycotts, restraining trade, or concerted refusals to deal, ‘clearly run afoul of’ Section 1 of the Sherman Act [according to the Supreme Court]. Section 1 prohibits ‘[e]very … combination … , or conspiracy, in restraint of trade or commerce.’ Regarding the definition of a ‘combination,’ the Supreme Court has held that this language prohibits ‘concerted action.’” Those are fighting word...

 Breitbart: Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL), who has been endorsed by Donald Trump in the Alabama Senate race , gave an exclusive interview to Breitbart News about the threat of tech censorship, comparing Silicon Valley’s suppression of speech to Communist China’s and urging the breakup of Big Tech companies. Rep. Brooks released a statement yesterday condemning the Facebook Oversight Board’s decision to uphold a ban on Donald Trump from the platform, calling it a “direct attack on the First Amendment’s Freedom of Speech rights.” The congressman has proposed the use of anti-trust laws to break up Big Tech monopolies, and for the repeal of Section 230 legal immunities for platforms that behave like publishers. In further comments to Breitbart News, Brooks gave his views on the anti-democratic impact of censorship. “Suppression of freedom speech reminds me much too much of the speech control exhibited in communist China, North Korea, [and] Nazi, Germany,” said Rep. Brooks. “I would hope that t...

  Epoch Times: Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) introduced an antitrust bill that would ban Amazon and Google from running an online marketplace and selling goods on that marketplace at the same time. “Big Tech companies like Google and Amazon have been coddled by Washington politicians for years. This treatment has allowed them to amass colossal amounts of power that they use to censor political opinions that they don’t agree with and shut out competitors who offer consumers an alternative to the status quo,” Hawley said in a statement to news outlets. “It’s past time to bust up Big Tech companies, restore competition, and give power back the American consumers.” The so-called Bust Up Big Tech Act bars firms such as Amazon from selling Amazon-branded products on Amazon’s market, where competitors also do business. In a separate tweet, Hawley said the practice allows Amazon to destroy its competitors. “No one company should be able to control e-commerce AND privilege its own products on ...

 Epoch Times: A media company that operates several West Virginia newspapers is suing Google and Facebook for threatening the extinction of local newspapers across the country by their alleged anti-competitive business practices. HD Media Company this week filed a lawsuit asking a federal court to determine whether the two Silicon Valley companies had violated anti-trust laws. The lawsuit claims Google had unlawfully exercised monopoly power of the digital advertising market, which has prevented newspapers from competing in the market and losing their primary source of revenue. It also claims that Google and Facebook had “unlawfully conspired to engage in anticompetitive conduct,” through an alleged secret deal nicknamed “Jedi Blue.” Details of the alleged agreement were first revealed when 10 state attorneys general sued Google for multiple violations of federal and state antitrust and consumer protection laws. According to a redacted version of the lawsuit ( pdf ) filed in De...