Reigning in the power of big tech companies may have hit a wall in the U.S. Congress. The legislation aimed at curtailing tech power slammed into a wall after the senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, told a group of donors that he does not believe there are actually enough votes to pass the measure.
The senator said that the bill was a “high priority,” but that the Senate does not have the 60 votes to approve the measure.
It comes as big tech companies prepare to hit their quarterly earnings reports. It also comes as dozens of companies sent a letter to congress this week to urge them to support a bill that would reign in the largest companies of tech, including Amazon and Google.
Senators like Amy Klobuchar, and other lawmakers from both the Dem and Rep side, said that they had the votes needed in the Senate to pass the legislation to prevent the massive tech platforms in the country from favoring their own businesses.
There are companies supporting the measure, which include yelp, Sonos, DuckDuckGo, and Spotify. They have called the measure something that is moderate and sensible, “aimed squarely at well-documented abuses by the very largest online platforms.”
There were even more signatories, including the American Booksellers Association, the American Independent Business Alliance, the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, and Kelkoo Group. Amazon.com, the Chamber of Commerce, and others oppose the measure.
Last week it was announced that the senator probably had the votes to pass the measure.
“It’s no surprise that Yelp and Spotify like the bill since it’s designed to help them. But senators are telling us that they just aren’t hearing their voters demanding changes to Amazon Basics and Google Maps,” Sen. Klobuchar, from New York, said. She is pro-tech and in the chamber of progress.
Tech giants like the ones included in the bill said it could imperil popular consumer products, things like google maps and amazon basics. They claim it would make it harder to protect user security and user privacy.
But other experts say that companies are trying to do whatever they can to not pass something that would benefit consumers.
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