Debate: Should Washington Break Up Big Tech?

After a 13-month investigation that yielded millions of documents and hundreds of hours of interviews, Congress called the chief executives from Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google to testify. And they did. In the historic hearing, the tech titans defended their companies against claims that they’re running afoul of antitrust law and using their market power to crush competition, amass data, and drive their own profits. As the internet giants face more probes from the FCC, DOJ, and a host of state attorneys general, some are calling this big tech’s “big tobacco moment.” But are these companies really too large? In this episode of “Agree to Disagree,” we bring two experts in antitrust and digital technologies to discuss whether Washington should break up big tech.

For the motion:

Zephyr Teachout, Attorney & Author, “Break ‘Em Up”

Zephyr Teachout is an attorney, political activist, and expert in corruption and antitrust. A rising star on the left, her campaign for New York Attorney General in 2018 was endorsed by Bernie Sanders, the New York Times, and others. Teachout teaches law at Fordham University and is the author of Break 'Em Up: Recovering Our Freedom from Big Ag, Big Tech, and Big Money.

Against the motion:

Andrew McAfee, Best-Selling Author & MIT Principal Research Scientist

Andrew McAfee is a principal research scientist at MIT where he investigates how information technology changes the way companies perform, organize themselves, and compete. He is also co-founder and co-director of MIT's Initiative on the Digital Economy. McAfee is the best-selling author of several books, including More From Less, Enterprise 2.0, and Race Against the Machine.