Ocasio-Cortez backs Warren’s plan to break up big tech

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) is backing 2020 presidential contender Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s (D-Mass.) plan to break up big tech companies.

“The idea itself is something that I am supportive of because taking an antitrust approach I believe is absolutely relevant and it’s appropriate to take,” the progressive House freshman said in an interview with Politico this week.

{mosads}Warren’s proposal would break up companies like Facebook, Google and Amazon, targeting firms that both own an online platform and participate in its marketplace. Ocasio-Cortez echoed criticisms of such arrangements, arguing that in the case of Amazon, its role as “both the marketplace, producer, seller … creates an antitrust issue.”

The New York Democrat was an outspoken critic of Amazon’s plans to open a headquarters near her district in Queens, N.Y. And last month, she announced she had quit Facebook and called social media a “public health risk.”

This week, she leveled criticism at the social network’s business model.

“Facebook as a basic communications platform while also selling ads and also being a surveillance platform, I think those functions should be broken up, but how that gets levied and how that gets approached is what we need to take a fine-tooth comb at,” Ocasio-Cortez said.