Sen. Bernie Sanders told POLITICO that he would "of course" support anti-trust legislation directed toward Facebook. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images 2020 elections Sanders backs calls to break up Facebook

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said today he supports calls to break up Facebook, his first remarks on the matter since entering the 2020 Democratic presidential campaign.

Asked on Capitol Hill by POLITICO whether he backed such calls for antitrust action against the social networking company, Sanders replied, “The answer is yes of course.”


He added: “We have a monopolistic— an increasingly monopolistic society where you have a handful of very large corporations having much too much power over consumers.”

A number of Democratic candidates vying for the White House in recent days have weighed in on the issue, but to this point only Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) have overtly supported such action. Warren earlier this year unveiled a sweeping proposal that would direct federal regulators to make Facebook spin off WhatsApp and Instagram, two of its blockbuster acquisitions from recent years.

Over the weekend Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) said we “have to seriously take a look at” breaking up the company, which has come under fire on both Capitol Hill and on the 2020 campaign trail over a litany of controversies. But Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), another Democratic presidential candidate, poured cold water on Warren’s proposal to do so.

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Sanders did not respond to a shouted question about whether he also supported breaking up Google and Amazon, as Warren has proposed.

