For the first time since the dot-com bust, tech companies are running scared. Last year exposed the ease with which social media could be weaponized, as platforms once hailed as revolutionary for democracy became tools for spreading disinformation and hate speech—and even enabled foreign interference in the presidential election. And this year, it became a rare point of consensus among many Republicans and Democrats that tech companies were both destructive and possessed too much power. What, then, does 2018 hold for Big Tech? A “reckoning” in Washington, according to Axios.

The Department of Justice’s decision to sue to block a merger between AT&T and Verizon could, as Axios’ David McCabe notes, set a precedent for breaking up tech companies. Congressional probes into Russian involvement in the 2016 election will continue into 2018, meaning that Google, Facebook, and Twitter will continue to face political pressure. Antitrust is creeping into the platforms of some 2018 and 2020 Democratic contenders. In this light, as Axios’ Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei argued in a separate piece, Mark Zuckerberg’s whistlestop-esque jaunt through America should be seen not as the foundation of presidential ambition, but as a calculated PR campaign aimed at shoring up the public and political perception of Facebook.



Big tech is certainly in for a turbulent year, if not longer, but there’s little indication that big tech will suffer any real consequences in the near term. While Democrats and Republicans agree on the problem, their ideological differences suggest that a solution is far off, if not impossible. And the tech companies will use their growing lobbying might to ensure as much.



Many on the right and left agree that the tech giants have too much power. But from there, the critiques shift. Those on the left increasingly consider Amazon, Google, and Facebook to be monopolies that need government intervention. When Amazon acquired Whole Foods earlier this year—leading many to speculate that the company would quickly become one of the largest grocers in the country—Congressman Ro Khanna, who represents Silicon Valley, tweeted that he was “deeply worried” about the move. “This as a case study for how we think about antitrust policy,” he said. “It’s the particulars here.” For decades, mergers have been evaluated only by how they affect prices, but that understanding is starting to shift. Speaking to The Atlantic, Khanna insisted that mergers be evaluated with broader concerns in mind, including consumer choice, wages, and the effect on small businesses.



Other Democrats have turned the screws on Silicon Valley by emphasizing Russia’s weaponization of social media during the 2016 election. “They’ve grown so quickly,” Senator Mark Warner, who built a $200 million fortune as a tech executive and investor, told The New York Times. “I’m not sure they’ve fully realized the implications of all their power.” Warner has also co-authored a bill that would require tech companies to disclose who purchases political advertisements, and he has pushed the Senate Intelligence Committee, of which he’s a member, to place greater scrutiny on Google, Facebook, and Twitter. More recently, Warner has toyed with the idea of scrutinizing the way these companies psychologically manipulate users—possibly paving the way for Congress to treat tech companies like tobacco companies.

