The US Judiciary Committee has released a package of measures aimed at regulating big tech monopolies in industry and technology sectors. The laws aim to prevent market leaders from extending their influence to buy companies that may one day be their competitors and thus operate as they see fit.

The regulation, led by the Platform Opportunity and Competition Act, requires companies of a certain size, or that belong to groups of a certain size, to prove, at the time of acquisition, that they will not be unbalancing the market. The same law prevents a business from purchasing a service if there is evidence that it is or may become a competitor in the future.

If approved, a law like this could completely change the scenario for the technology sector, known for its unbridled advances in the market. Just for reference, an analysis of the finances of Apple revealed that the company bought 25 of the last 60 acquisitions of Artificial Intelligence companies just last year.

The act is a long-standing promise of the Biden administration

A law like this is not exactly a surprise, since one of Joe Biden's most reinforced points is that of put limits on tech giants. The president nominated Tim Wu, the creator of net neutrality, and Lina Khan, an advocate for breaking up big tech, to the Economic Council and para the FTC, respectively. The United States Congress itself had already announced that the era of Google, Facebook and the like regulate themselves was coming to an end.

Regulating big tech acquisitions could, for example, prevent Facebook, the creator of Messenger, from acquiring WhatsApp or Instagram. The decision could also prevent companies with a business model based on surveillance, such as Google, from extending data collection to other aspects, as was the case with the acquisition of Fitbit.

Through which channels you reach those people, classic and out of the box. Electronic Frontier Foundation

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