LONDON: A group of small companies are to launch an advertising campaign this week in an effort to lobby lawmakers to pass a bill that would curb the power of big tech.
The campaign aims to put pressure on Congress to discuss and pass the new legislation, called The American Choice and Innovation Online Act, by the end of the year.
The group, which competes against tech giants such as Apple, Meta, Amazon and Google, has expressed concern about the legislation being ditched after top Republicans hinted at a possible failure in a GOP-led House of Representatives, which is expected to take over in early January.
“For years, big tech has acted as the fox guarding the hen house of online competition,” said Ben Kobren, head of public policy at Neeva, an ad-free search engine that competes with Google.
“The American Innovation and Choice Online Act is the first bipartisan legislation in decades to meaningfully level the playing field and spur American innovation.”
The advertisement, which is being paid for by companies such as Neeva, search engine DuckDuckGo and price-comparison service Kelkoo, will be aired across major networks, including CNN and MSNBC.
The measure, which would prevent tech companies from using their platforms to thwart competitors, would be the most significant expansion of antitrust law in more than a century.
The 30-second ad, which is structured like a movie trailer, includes images of negative headlines about the world’s largest technology companies, and to many is considered “the last-ditch push to get the bill across the finish line.”
Sacha Haworth, executive director of the Tech Oversight Project, a group that lobbies against big tech and helped to coordinate the campaign, said: “With a more than likely Republican House to take over in January, the time to get this done is now.”
The coalition of small businesses sent a letter to Congressional leaders on Monday urging them to prioritize an antitrust bill targeting tech giants during the lame-duck session, the gap period before the new House takes over.
The Tech Oversight Project aired a TV spot in June which was aimed at making the case for the passage of the legislation, the Choice Online Act and the Open App Markets Act.
Meanwhile, major tech companies have reportedly spent more than $120 million in opposition to the bill, through advertisements and messages aimed at discrediting the legislation.
