California Governor: Large Tech Firms Might Be ‘Streamrolled’

In a published interview, California Governor Gavin Newsom said big tech companies in his state could soon be “steamrolled” through federal regulations. Significant changes could impact them at the federal and state levels, according to Axios.

“Are they going to lead in that conversation and engage in it? Or are they going to get completely steamrolled? By current pace, they are going to get steamrolled,” Newsom said.

At the same time, Newsom stands behind a so-called data dividend concept that makes tech platforms pay those who live in California for money they make by selling their personal information. According to the report, he did not know how large those amounts should be.

“Your data is being monetized every single nanosecond,” Newsom noted. “And, to the extent it’s been monetized and it’s yours, I think in some way, shape or form, you should be rewarded.”

Newsom did not address whether Facebook and Google should be split into smaller pieces, per the wishes of Democratic U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and others. He did, however, call out Facebook for not taking down a video of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi from its platform. “It’s just fake – it’s made up. It’s doctored. It’s done for political purposes,” he said.

The news comes as Warren introduced a plan to break up large tech firms such as Amazon and Facebook in an effort that could limit the growth of Silicon Valley. Warren wrote in a blog post in March that “today’s big tech companies have too much power – too much power over our economy, our society and our democracy.”

Warren continued: “They’ve bulldozed competition, used our private information for profit and tilted the playing field against everyone else. And in the process, they have hurt small businesses and stifled innovation.” She went on to explain that almost half of all eCommerce goes through Amazon, while more than 70 percent of all web traffic is through sites owned or operated by Facebook or Google.