GOP Rep. Todd Rokita Says FTC, DOJ Should Investigate Google

Republican lawmaker Rep. Todd Rokita (R-IN) has called on the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice to investigate Google over potential antitrust violations.

In a letter to the DOJ and FTC, Rep. Rokita warned that “market dominance creates an often-insurmountable barrier to entry for new innovators who could better serve consumers.”

It is the second time this year that Rep. Rokita is taking on a corporate giant — he previously called for Citibank to be stripped of their government contract, following the megabank’s attack on the second amendment.

The Congressman warned that Google’s market dominance, combined with invasive data collection, has given the company “vast insight and influence into American consumers’ internet activities.”

“Americans must hand their data to one company. Using this data, Google creates invasive consumer profiles to determine the type of products, opportunities, and services marketed to these consumers. These market conditions are in part what prompted European regulators to take action against Google.”

The action Rep. Rokita references occurred last year, when Google was fined $2.7 billion by the European Union over antitrust violations.

“Google’s market power extends well beyond search and mobile”, Rep. Rokita wrote. “The vast majority of ad-funded websites use Google technologies to sell advertising space… Google is one of two companies that together claim 73 percent of all online advertising revenue.”

Google’s chokehold on ad revenue represents a potent political weapon. In August last year, a conservative website reported that they received a letter from the search giant’s Adsense service threatening to cut off ad revenue from the site if it did not remove “hateful” content. As Breitbart has exclusively reported, there is also relentless pressure from left-wing employees within Google to remove ad revenue from other conservative websites, including Breitbart News.

The Department of Justice confirmed that they have received and are reviewing the letter, although they declined to give a comment to the press.

Allum Bokhari is the senior technology correspondent at Breitbart News. You can follow him on Twitter, Gab.ai and add him on Facebook. Email tips and suggestions to allumbokhari@protonmail.com.