美国国家公共电台 NPR Is Facebook Too Big? State Attorneys General Want To Know（在线收听）

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Facebook is under fire again. Attorneys general from several states have launched a formal investigation into the social media giant over anti-competitive practices. The New York attorney general's office confirmed this morning they are leading an investigation that will look at whether Facebook is hurting consumers. This is the latest move by federal and state government to get tough on big social media companies. We should note here Facebook is an NPR sponsor. We've got NPR's Aarti Shahani on the line to tell us more about this.

Hi, Aarti.

AARTI SHAHANI, BYLINE: Hi.

MARTIN: What do you know about the investigation thus far?

SHAHANI: So the New York state attorney general, Letitia James, announced she's leading a bipartisan investigation - you heard me right, bipartisan.

MARTIN: (Laughter).

SHAHANI: That's right.

MARTIN: Hurray for that.

SHAHANI: It is multipronged. First, has Facebook been negligent with consumer data? Two billion-plus users signed up for the service. That's about a quarter of the population on Earth entrusting the company.

MARTIN: Wow.

SHAHANI: And Facebook has then turned around and offered exclusive access to these stockpiles of data to partners who could maybe help Facebook grow even bigger and more powerful like Cambridge Analytica and also Airbnb. Another question that James and her colleagues will investigate is whether Facebook's growth is harming consumer choice. I'll give you an example here. Just this week, the company brought its matchmaking service to the U.S., OK? Plenty of other dating apps already exist here. Facebook takes a lot of features from those apps and could easily drive the competitors out of business not because Facebook is offering a better service but because Facebook's so dominant, startups can't compete for attention. Some advertisers have expressed concern about how much control Facebook has over the market. The AGs will take a look into that, too.

MARTIN: Is this just about Facebook? Or are there other companies targeted here?

SHAHANI: So another set of AGs is looking at Google. And that's being led by the Texas attorney general, a Republican, Ken Paxton. He's leading a multi-state probe into Google, according to The Wall Street Journal. Back in June, Paxton raised the concern that information about how people spend their lives - GPS location data from Google Maps or Waze, what we search for, what we view on YouTube. This data, he said, has become extremely valuable, especially when aggregated into large sets and analyzed and packaged for targeted marketing.

And he was concerned that the biggest platforms like Google's YouTube don't have an incentive to protect consumers. You know, just this week, Google settled a case for covertly and illegally tracking little kids as they're watching "Peppa Pig." Paxton and 42 other AGs asked the Federal Trade Commission to work closely with them to look at predatory conduct and anti-competitive practices. So presumably, that's the effort he's leading.

MARTIN: So, you know, consumers have been hearing these stories about Facebook or Google for a long time now, right? And I just wonder if you're seeing that take any - have any kind of effect because it seems to me every bad news story that comes out about these companies, consumers are, like, well, I get it. But it's just so integral in my life. It's convenient. It helps me keep in touch with family and friends.

SHAHANI: Right. But I actually think that that picture is changing, particularly as we start to understand the real stakes of it, right? There was a school of thought that maybe is still out there a bit of, hey, it's free, so it can't be bad for me. I don't pay for Facebook or YouTube. But then we have to note, Rachel, that we're entering a new chapter in history, right? That chapter is the data economy. The companies that own information, which they will then sell to other businesses - they have a whole lot of control. They can set prices. They can wipe out entire sectors. They can control what we believe and think to be true. I mean, we've reported on this repeatedly.

MARTIN: Right.

SHAHANI: So while the individual consumer right now might not feel harm in the moment, pain in the moment, in the long run, there could be a massive transfer of wealth and power that hurts us all. So I think that the picture is changing there. I would add that Google says it's working with regulators, including AGs.

MARTIN: All right. NPR's Aarti Shahani.

Aarti, thanks. We appreciate it.

SHAHANI: Thank you.