Break them up? 5 ways Congress is trying to rein in Big Tech

WASHINGTON (AP) — Groundbreaking legislation is advancing in Congress that would curb the market power of tech giants Facebook, Google, Amazon and Apple and could force them to untie their dominant platforms from their other lines of business. Hostility toward Big Tech has grown in recent years with the belief that its size and swagger have stifled competition, limited consumer choice and raised prices.

The bipartisan legislation targets the companies’ structure and points toward breaking them up, a dramatic step for Congress to take against a powerful industry whose products are woven into everyday life. Its backers say it would help ensure lower prices and more choices for consumers, and a fairer playing field for smaller businesses to compete.

In two days of heavy, often wonky, debate, the House Judiciary Committee approved the legislative package and sent it to the full U.S. House, where a vote will be the next step in what promises to be a strenuous slog through Congress.

The measures seek to rein in the tech giants in five ways:

BREAKING THEM UP

The legislation would bar the four companies from owning a dominant platform at the same time they own another line of business if having both creates a conflict of interest.

That means they could be forced to sell off businesses in which their market dominance enables them to favor their own services or squash competitors.

This is “the big enchilada” of the legislative package, is how a friendly Republican lawmaker put it. A Democrat, Rep. Zoe Lofgren, whose California district sits in Silicon Valley, opposed the bill. “It would take a grenade and just roll it into the tech economy and blow it up,” she said.

The measure doesn’t name the four companies. But they fit into a new legal category it creates called “covered...