Sam Bowman on the American Innovation and Choice Online Act

Townhall – ICLE Director of Competition Policy Sam Bowman was cited by Townhall in a story about recent antitrust legislation targeting the tech sector. The full story is available here.

The Sen. Klobuchar bill, The American Innovation and Choice Online Act, has been joined by many Senate Republicans, including my Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA). According to Sam Bowman writing at Truth on the Market on September 1, 2021, “in its current form, the bill is split into two parts that each is dangerous in its own right. The first, Section 2(a), would prohibit almost any kind of ‘discrimination’ by platforms. Because it is so open-ended, lawmakers might end up removing it in favor of the nominally more focused provisions of Section 2(b), which prohibit certain named conduct. But despite being more specific, this section of the bill is incredibly far-reaching and would effectively ban swaths of essential services.” One of the biggest problems with this legislation is these companies are guilty until they prove themselves innocent, because the companies have the burden of proof. This is what socialism looks like.