John,

It may not surprise you, and yet it is shocking nonetheless: over 70% of all traffic on the internet goes through sites owned or operated by Google or Facebook.

And nearly half of all e-commerce goes through Amazon.

In the process of consolidation, the big tech companies have spread dangerous disinformation, violated our privacy, and sold our personal information. They’ve created a playing field that either wipes out small businesses, or forces them to advertise and sell their goods on the platforms owned by the big tech companies.

When monopolies destroy the competition, small businesses and consumers lose out as prices are fixed and options are limited. Legislative solutions to break up these monopolies have not been successful. We need the monopoly-busting power of the Department of Justice to step in.

Sign the petition today and urge the DOJ to break up big tech!

The tech giants pursue their dominance with two main strategies. The first: They use mergers to limit competition. Instead of “If you can’t beat them, join them,” the new motto is, “If you can’t beat them, make them join you.”

The second strategy is related: they force competitors to use the online marketplaces they own, then they sell their own versions of the same products on the same sites. This motto might be, “If you can’t beat them, co-opt, copy, and undersell them.” Competitors will go bankrupt if they are unable to compete at scale.

In addition to denying future mergers, needed reforms will require breaking up some existing mergers as well - - for instance, Amazon owning Whole Foods and Zappos; Facebook owning What’s App and Instagram; Google owning Waze and Nest.

Effective reform will not limit our ability as consumers to perform Google searches or find items we’re looking for on Amazon. We will still be able to see what friends are up to on Facebook.

But small businesses would be able to sell their products on Amazon without fear of Amazon pushing them out of business. Google wouldn’t be able to demote competitors’ products in their search results. And Instagram and What’s App could pressure Facebook to improve their user experience.

We need legislation to prevent tech platforms from owning the same platforms on which they compete with small businesses.

And we need to tell the DOJ to reverse anti-competitive tech mergers.

Thank you for helping to level the playing field for American consumers and small business!

- Amanda

Amanda Ford, Director
Democracy for America
Advocacy Fund