Consumer advocate Ralph Nader, concerned about fake news prevalent on social media sites, believes Congress should weigh in with antitrust legislation targeting Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Apple.

"The sooner the better," he said at a National Archives celebration event for the 50-year-old Freedom of Information Act.



The so-called "fake news" on those sites has been called a threat to traditional for-profit media and some have even suggested that since the social media sites control so much money-making traffic they should be subject to anti-monopoly laws.

The influential Nader agreed. "Eventually it's going to have to end up in Congress. First Amendment or not, it's going to have to end up in Congress. You have four major monopolies now, redefined under our antitrust laws someday we hope. You have Google, you have Facebook, you have Microsoft and Apple," he said.

And he doesn't believe that they will be able to hide behind free speech laws. "This is not going to be, 'Oh don't mess with our First Amendment rights,' oh, no, no. This is going to go into the antitrust area and it's going to go into legislation," he added.

Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner's "Washington Secrets" columnist, can be contacted at pbedard@washingtonexaminer.com