The Washington Times reports that a new video reveals Google executive, Jen Gennai, head of Google’s Responsible Innovation team, suggesting that big tech companies should not be broken up because it would be difficult to combat “the next Trump situation.”
“Elizabeth Warren is saying we should break up Google. And like, I love her but she’s very misguided. That will not make it better, it will make it worse, because now all these smaller companies who don’t have the same resources that we do will be charged with preventing the next Trump situation.”
Gennai added that small companies will not have the ability to take on this task.
The video was produced by Project Veritas — which it should be noted has a history of creating misleading videos via selective editing — and will provide ammunition for conservatives that believe Google is biased toward people with their values. It also features an anonymous man identified as a “Google insider” that claims after President Donald Trump’s victory, the company shifted from values that fostered self-expression for everyone to a more narrow focus of combating hate, misogyny, and racism — which Google purportedly believes is the reason Trump was elected. He says that the company manipulates search results to suit their political agenda, and they tweak their algorithm to suit their needs.
The release of the video comes not long after Congress and the Justice Department launched antitrust probes into big tech companies like Google, Facebook, and Twitter.
Senators want big tech companies like #Apple , #Facebook , and #Google to highlight how much user data is worth to the company, to highlight the true #privacy cost of using ‘free’ services. https://t.co/8Smn1xtems pic.twitter.com/89ch3LBAqt
— AppleInsider (@appleinsider) June 24, 2019
CNET reports that the probe was announced earlier this June by Representative David N. Cicilline, a Democrat from Rhode Island and chairman of the House Antitrust Subcommittee. The probe will examine whether big tech companies are involved in “anti-competitive conduct” and determine if the government’s current antitrust laws and policies are enough to address any problems that are found in the investigation.
“The growth of monopoly power across our economy is one of the most pressing economic and political challenges we face today. Market power in digital markets presents a whole new set of dangers,” Cicilline said in a statement.
Silicon Valley is currently under fire for its market dominance, which some suggest is stifling competition and hurting consumers. Democratic presidential hopeful Senator Elizabeth Warren has made breaking up big tech companies a crucial part of her platform. In addition, Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes has come out in support of breaking up the company.
Others, such as Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang, believe that — while big tech companies may be too big in many cases — breaking them up won’t solve the problem of their addictiveness, which causes depression and anxiety amongst teens, per The Inquisitr .
