Rep. David Cicilline says recommendations from House antitrust inquiry could come as soon as Sept. and a Glass-Steagall-like law for tech might be an option
David McLaughlin / Bloomberg :
Context & Ripple Effects
This is the payoff moment for an inquiry that began when lawmakers announced the sweeping antitrust probe of Facebook, Google, Apple, and Amazon in mid-2019, followed by CEO testimony and depositions through the hearings Cicilline chaired. Weeks earlier he had already tipped his hand, arguing Facebook should be broken up over its Instagram and WhatsApp acquisitions.
First-order effects
- Facebook, Google, Apple, and Amazon now face a concrete legislative deadline: Cicilline's subcommittee is preparing formal recommendations as soon as September, converting a year of hearings into draft policy.
- A Glass-Steagall-style structural separation for tech is explicitly on the table, meaning the platforms' core business lines — not just their conduct — are potential targets of regulation.
Second-order effects
- If the recommendations harden into the merger-reform package Cicilline later outlines, dominant platforms lose the acquisition playbook that built them, forcing growth through organic product development instead of buying rivals.
- The FTC, which Cicilline had earlier pressed to investigate Facebook amid what he called a credibility crisis, gains political cover from Congress to pursue its own cases against the same companies.
Third-order effects
- Structural separation would redraw the industry's boundaries the way banking's Glass-Steagall once did, splitting platforms' infrastructure roles from their competitive commercial operations — a template the House Judiciary Committee's 450-page report accusing Big Tech of crushing smaller rivals later formalizes as a blueprint for legislation.
The trend: Congress is moving from investigating Big Tech to drafting structural antitrust legislation, with separation of platform functions emerging as the most aggressive option.