Lisa Phelan spoke to Politico for an article that covers the boost in D.C. popularity for big tech companies after the White House enlisted them to use their tremendous size, reach, and mastery of data to fight the coronavirus, and why these same traits could pose a peril for these companies, who are the subjects of multiple federal antitrust probes that are nearing a critical stage despite the pandemic.
Public opinion about the major tech companies was certainly “a piece of what was driving the antitrust agencies” to open their probes, Lisa said. “Some pressure was coming from the public sense that these are big, bad companies. Now the view is, ‘These are our saviors and we love them.’ It’s one possible scenario that their public image changes [and] that may reduce some of the pressure” to bring cases against them.