TPA Highlights Dangers of Congressional Big Tech Obsession to Small Business

For Immediate Release

Contact: MacKenzie A. Morales   | 615/512-3936                                                                                                                         

Washington, D.C. – The Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) strongly opposes the effort of lawmakers to reevaluate antitrust and intermediary liability laws, such as Section 230, to achieve policy objectives outside of the scope of ensuring consumers are not harmed by a lack of competition in the market. Today, TPA submitted testimony from a small business for the House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing entitled “”Disinformation Nation: Social Media’s Role in Promoting Extremism and Misinformation” in efforts to expose how small businesses nationwide heavily rely on online platforms to survive, especially during the global pandemic. Our comments also pushed back on the constitutionality of constraining the ability of online services to manage their products as they see fit.

TPA VP of Policy Patrick Hedger offered the following comment:

“Expanding and abusing antitrust enforcement and limiting Section 230 would harm innovation and entrepreneurship and impose real costs, in effect raising taxes and harming American consumers. Congress cannot continue the trend of its predecessor of dragging CEOs before subcommittee hearings to berate them for their business practices. If businesses are punished merely for being successful, they will be dissuaded from delivering innovations that have wide-ranging benefits for people across the globe. It will also, ironically, disadvantage emerging competitors. The big, established players in the market are the only ones with the vast resources to afford the ire of a litigious federal government and armies of trial lawyers.  Testimony submitted by TPA on behalf of small businesses shows that Big Tech is helping, not hurting, small businesses. Members of the committee need to support the ability of small businesses to utilize these platforms.”

Background: The Government Antitrust Accountability Project is an ongoing effort by the Taxpayers Protection Alliance to ensure that competition policy remains narrowly focused on protecting consumers and not used as a vehicle to advance other political or economic interests. The Government Antitrust Accountability Project is dedicated to educating the public and government officials about the importance of consumer-focused competition policy and monitoring developments in this space to hold those who would seek to abuse antitrust policy accountable. You can learn more here. 

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Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to educating the public through the research, analysis and dissemination of information on the government’s effects on the economy.