Thursday on Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends,” Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) discussed his questions on allegations of Google has been acting in bad faith with its bias against conservatives and the potential it has been using its competitive advantages to discourage competitors.
Lee argued there was a distinction between the two issues, noting that Google was “free to do” what it wants, as well as be a monopoly. What he said was not allowed was Google engaging in anti-competitive behavior to maintain the monopoly.
Partial transcript as follows:
DOOCY: I think it was two days ago, Senator, you were able to ask a bunch of important questions of Google, the search engine and advertiser that we all rely on so that we know the nearest restaurant to us at all times.
And you brought up a great point during the testimony and the questioning, and that is as a private company, they can do whatever they want to, for the most part, when it comes to the way they aggregate things. But is that any way to treat your customers because you say it feels like they are biased against conservatives?
LEE: Right. So there are a couple of issues here. You’ve got the conservative bias question and you’ve got an antitrust question.
Sure, they’re free to do what they want. Sure, they’re free even to be a monopoly if they want. But what they cannot do is to be a monopoly and then maintain that monopoly by engaging in anti-competitive behavior.
The bias against conservatives is analytically distinct from the question of whether they’re engaging in a violation of section two of the Sherman Act. It is, however, potentially reflective of how someone acts as a monopolist.
In other words, you wouldn’t go out if you had a restaurant or if you had an auto service business of some sort and say I’m going to serve only Republicans and not Democrats, or I’m going to serve Democrats but I’m going to be rude to my Republican customers. You wouldn’t do that unless you believed that your customers couldn’t go anywhere else.
That’s what we’re looking into with Google.
EARHARDT: So what were your big takeaways?
LEE: One of the takeaways was that the Google executive who testified — we had a great discussion. We learned a lot. And yet, there were a number of questions that he failed to answer. I’m going to look into getting him to answer those questions through writing in the next few days.
Because the fact of the matter is if they can’t tell us who their major competitors are and what market share they have, that, by itself, is a problem. If they can’t tell us why certain things aren’t —
DOOCY: Right.
LEE: — technologically possible in order to allow them to compete effectively in the marketplace, that, too, is a problem.
DOOCY: Hey, Senator, real quick exit question. Do you use Google or do you use Bing or do you use Yahoo, or do you just have a phone book?
LEE: I alternate between them. I do frequently use Google. But like most people in America, like most people in Europe, like most people in so many parts of the world, I use Google frequently. I sometimes use Bing or other search engines as well.
But the point is not what any particular American chooses to use on any particular day. The question is whether they’ve got antitrust power —
DOOCY: Yes.
LEE: — and whether they’re unlawfully maintaining —
KILMEADE: Right.
LEE: — that antitrust position through anticompetitive conduct.
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
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