Ocasio-Cortez backs Warren plan to break up tech giants

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) is backing 2020 presidential contender Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s (D-Mass.) plan to break up big tech companies.

“The idea itself is something that I am supportive of because taking an antitrust approach I believe is absolutely relevant and it’s appropriate to take,” the progressive House freshman said in an interview with Politico this week.

Warren’s proposal would break up companies like Facebook, Google and Amazon, targeting firms that both own an online platform and participate in its marketplace. Ocasio-Cortez echoed criticisms of such arrangements, arguing that in the case of Amazon, its role as “both the marketplace, producer, seller … creates an antitrust issue.”

The New York Democrat was an outspoken critic of Amazon’s plans to open a headquarters near her district in Queens, N.Y. And last month, she announced she had quit Facebook and called social media a “public health risk.”