This is a petition urging New York Senator and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to stand up to Big Tech and put an end to the anticompetitive practices companies like Amazon and Google are using to strangle competition and maintain an iron grip on the marketplace. Americans deserve a variety of options when investing in new technology, so that we can “vote with [our] dollars” for enterprises that reflect our values, whether that be in regards to innovation, environmentalism, human & worker rights, or free speech.

In 2020, the House Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial, and Administrative Law released a exhaustive report documenting the multitude of ways Apple, Amazon, Facebook, and Alphabet (Google’s parent company) directly harm competitors in order to safeguard their monopolies. Apple charges outside developers a 30% “commission” on the profits they earn simply for existing in the App Store. Google privileges its own results so highly that 65% of all Google searches take place entirely within Google’s ecosystem. Upwards of 65% of US  purchases online take place through Amazon. And since that report, that deleterious effects of Facebook (and Instagram) on our young people, our democracy, and our understanding of truth have become ever more apparent.

There are two bills currently in Congress that would limit the harm done by these tech monopolies. The American Choice and Innovation Online Act, put forward by Senators Amy Klobuchar and Chuck Grassley, would give federal antitrust agencies the power to investigate and penalize online platforms for a wide variety of shady practices like user data mining. The Open App Markets Act, introduced by Senators Richard Blumenthal, Amy Klobuchar, and Marsha Blackburn, would prohibit online marketplaces from “self-preferencing” their own products or punishing entrepreneurs for selling their products in a different marketplace at a lower cost. Both bills have massive bipartisan support and are overwhelmingly popular with voters, but Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has yet to bring these bills up for a vote. Please join me in telling Senator Schumer that we can’t wait any longer to reign in these corporate behemoths and give Americans choice within the evolving technology marketplace.