House panel votes ‘yes’ on bill that could break up Big Tech

The House Judiciary Committee voted Thursday to require Big Tech platforms to sell lines of business they run on their platforms if they also compete against them, wrapping up two days of votes that saw the approval of four measures directly aimed at reining in the power of some of the country’s most successful companies.

The bill passed the committee on a vote of 21-20. Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI), chair of the antitrust subcommittee, said the bill forcing Big Tech to choose between running a platform and competing on it was needed because the tech giants had not played fairly. “Google, Amazon and Apple each favor their own products in search results, giving themselves an unfair advantage over competitors,” he said.