Barry C. Lynn, a former senior fellow at the New America Foundation who was fired after criticizing Google, claimed this week democracy could be threatened by technology monopolies.

“I think people are understanding just how poorly structured these institutions are, how sloppily they were built,” proclaimed Lynn in an interview with The Hill. “It’s not just a matter of the fact that these people have too much power, it’s also that they are sloppy in the use of their power.”

“Perhaps the most pressing thing of all is that Google, Facebook and to certain degrees also Amazon have captured the flow of information and ideas between citizen and citizen,” he continued. “Our ability to communicate freely with one another in this country, which is the primary basis for being able to protect our democracy, is now threatened in very real ways today… This is not a theoretical threat; this is a threat that exists today.”

Lynn and other members of the New America Foundation’s Open Markets group were expelled from the Google-sponsored think tank in August after praising the European Union’s anti-trust sanctions against Google.

Both Republicans and Democrats condemned the move, which was described as a “threat” to American freedom by one of the Open Markets group’s members, while another compared the company to a monarchy, claiming they were “coming after critics” in academia and journalism and “forming into a government of itself.”

In September, it was reported that legislators in Washington, D.C., were considering stricter regulations on Silicon Valley tech companies.

Breitbart News Executive Chairman and former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon also reportedly called for the regulation of technology companies to be treated like utilities.

Charlie Nash is a reporter for Breitbart Tech. You can follow him on Twitter @MrNashington and Gab @Nash, or like his page at Facebook.