The country’s top prosecutor probing Big Tech left the door open to breaking up the biggest names in Silicon Valley.
Makan Delrahim, head of the Justice Department’s antitrust division, said Tuesday that breaking up companies such as Google, Facebook or Amazon is “perfectly on the table” while speaking at the WSJ Tech Live summit.
The Journal reports that Delrahim laid out a “worst-case scenario” for Big Tech as the Justice Department’s wide-ranging antitrust review, which began over the summer, continues.
“There’s no question consumers have benefited from technology. There’s no question we have a lot more conveniences at our disposal. The big question is: Are companies abusing the market power that they have gained,” Delrahim said.
Delrahim reportedly summed up his operating philosophy a few moments later, saying: “Big is not bad. Big behaving badly is bad.”
Notably, Delrahim said it was not his job to be worried about whether breaking up America’s biggest tech firms would help China to gain market shares.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt have all made that nationalist appeal in defense of Silicon Valley.
“Consideration of national champions is inappropriate,” Delrahim said.
