Google & Big Tech Are a Threat to Open Discourse

On August 30, New America president Anne-Marie Slaughter terminated the left-leaning think tank's relationship with scholar Barry C. Lynn and his Open Markets program. Slaughter says that Lynn was not abiding by New America's standards of openness and institutional collegiality. He says he was fired for his staunch antitrust views on the biggest technology companies and, in specific, his praise for the EU's decision in June to levy a $2.7 billion fine on Google for unfair market practices.Lynn has studied monopolies for nearly 20 years (15 of them while based at New America). He is the author of two books on the subject, including Cornered: The New Monopoly Capitalism and the Economics of Destruction (2009), and numerous essays and op-eds. His work is notable for its examination not only of the economic impact of monopolies, but also of their political implications. The mission of the initiative Lynn headed at New America promises as much: The Open Markets Program at New America was founded to protect liberty and democracy in America from extreme concentrations of economic and political power. Research topics include the growth of food and farming conglomerates; the challenges posed to small businesses; and, in recent years, the growing power of Big Tech companies like Amazon and Google. Journalists and politicians had been paying a great deal of attention to this work in recent years. Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren delivered the keynote address at an Open Markets conference about America's Monopoly Problem in June 2016, and the New York Times frequently cites the work of the Open Markets team in its reporting on the growth of Amazon.