Congress has the power to crush Big Tech’s app monopoly



Global policymakers and consumers are weary of Big Tech monopolies. While excessive consolidation of power leads to privacy violations, price gouging, and stifling innovation, it poses a unique threat to free speech.

Trump administration antitrust enforcers understood that threat. As Assistant Attorney General Gail Slater observed, when a handful of companies control the flow of information, “someone can be disappeared from the internet quite easily.”

Digital free speech shouldn’t depend on the shifting preferences of Apple executives or Google policy teams.

Conservatives increasingly see Big Tech’s ability to distort and manipulate public discourse as a downstream effect of its market dominance. In the case of the mobile internet, it takes only two companies — Apple and Google — to control the smartphone experience of nearly every American.

Congress is beginning to respond. Two recently introduced bills would take on Apple and Google’s app store choke points directly. The Open App Markets Act, co-sponsored by Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), and the App Store Freedom Act, sponsored by Rep. Kat Cammack (R-Fla.), aim to empower users by giving them the option to download apps from sources outside of Apple and Google’s proprietary platforms, including alternative marketplaces.

Why do these technical details matter for speech? Because Apple and Google’s gatekeeper power has already been abused to silence dissent.

In 2021, Parler — a social media app popular on the right — was removed from Apple and Google’s app stores for allegedly having “inadequate” content moderation policies. The timing followed reports that the platform was used to coordinate the January 6 Capitol riot. Virtually overnight, Parler went from one of the fastest growing apps in the world to a ghost town. Internet consumers move quickly, and the app’s months in Big Tech’s doghouse became a death sentence. Parler never recovered.

Parler wasn’t an isolated case. Years earlier, Google banned Gab, another free speech-oriented platform, while Apple never allowed it to launch in the first place. Google also initially refused to approve President Trump’s Truth Social due to concerns over its moderation policies. And abroad, Apple has bowed to authoritarian regimes — removing apps used by dissidents in China and Russia at the request of those governments.

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  http://www.fotogestoeber.de via iStock/Getty Images

The problem runs deeper than censorship. Apple and Google have used their dominance to dictate the design and speech choices of developers. App makers are often forbidden from communicating key information to users — such as the availability of cheaper subscription pricing outside of Apple and Google’s walled gardens.

The scope of their power is staggering. Roughly 91% of Americans own a smartphone. More than 99% of those devices run on Apple’s iOS or Google’s Android operating systems. And 88% of the time spent on those phones is inside apps — not on web browsers.

Without real guardrails, that bottleneck becomes a single point of failure. It’s a choke point ready to be exploited by governments, activist groups, or corporations that want to control speech.

Some openly defend the current system precisely because it allows Apple and Google to keep disfavored apps off the market. Even before Elon Musk acquired Twitter (now X), Apple and Google pressured the company to increase moderation. After Musk’s takeover, activist organizations lobbied Apple and Google to ban X altogether if Musk didn’t reinstate stricter content rules.

An open app ecosystem benefits everyone. Conservatives celebrating Big Tech’s apparent political shifts should remember how easily those loyalties change. Liberals worried about “tech bro” influence should support guardrails that limit partisan manipulation — regardless of who holds power.

Digital free speech shouldn’t depend on the shifting preferences of Apple executives or Google policy teams. Congress must act to restore balance and ensure pluralism. The Open App Markets Act and the App Store Freedom Act offer real, durable solutions. They deserve bipartisan support.

Trump tears into Thomas Massie over CR opposition: 'HE SHOULD BE PRIMARIED'



President Donald Trump lashed out at Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, who said on Monday that he would vote against the GOP-led continuing resolution.

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) can afford to lose only one Republican vote on the CR given his party's historically narrow House majority. Democrats have also vowed to vote against the CR, leaving Johnson with the challenge of rallying every Republican behind the bill.

Massie, arguably the most principled fiscal conservative in Congress, already claimed the sole "no" vote the conference can spare, adding to the mounting pressure on Republicans. Trump, in turn, took to Truth Social to air his grievances.

'Someone thinks they can control my voting card by threatening my re-election. Guess what? Doesn’t work on me.'

"Congressman Thomas Massie, of beautiful Kentucky, is an automatic 'NO' vote on just about everything, despite the fact that he has always voted for Continuing Resolutions in the past," Trump said. "HE SHOULD BE PRIMARIED, and I will lead the charge against him."

"He's just another GRANDSTANDER, who's too much trouble, and not worth the fight," Trump added. "He reminds me of Liz Cheney before her historic, record breaking fall (loss!). The people of Kentucky won't stand for it, just watch."

While Trump's condemnation would have worked on most Republicans, Massie has been famously immune to the political pressures of GOP leadership, and that includes the president.

Behind the scenes, Republican leadership has been hustling to get the CR passed.

"Someone thinks they can control my voting card by threatening my re-election," Massie said. "Guess what? Doesn’t work on me. Three times I’ve had a challenger who tried to be more MAGA than me. None busted 25% because my constituents prefer transparency and principles over blind allegiance."

Massie is always considered an immovable "no" vote in every spending fight, leaving the rest of the Republican conference to sink or swim. Apart from Massie, several Republicans are still on the fence about Tuesday's CR vote, including Reps. Tim Burchett of Tennessee, Cory Mills of Florida, Tony Gonzales of Texas, Rich McCormick of Georgia, Beth Van Duyne of Texas, Kat Cammack of Florida, Andy Ogles of Tennessee, and Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania.

Despite some holdouts, Johnson is gunning for a repeat of February's reconciliation vote, where Republicans voted in lockstep to get the budget blueprint passed, with Massie as the only exception.

Behind the scenes, Republican leadership has been hustling to get the CR passed.

OMB Director Russ Vought met with members of the House Freedom Caucus and adjacent fiscal conservatives in early March to pitch the Trump-backed funding bill ahead of the vote, as Blaze News first reported. Trump also met with the same group 48 hours later in order to rally remaining Republican holdouts. As a result, the HFC officially endorsed the CR despite historically opposing CRs generally.

It's clear that Republicans are putting in the work. Now we will have to wait and see if it pays off.

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Lawmakers deliver scathing review of Speaker Johnson's last-minute funding bill



After many delays and much anticipation, Speaker Mike Johnson unveiled the 1,547-page continuing resolution that Congress will need to pass in order to avert a government shutdown just days before Christmas.

The CR was originally supposed to be revealed before the weekend of December 14, but due to ongoing negotiations, the funding bill was not actually revealed until Tuesday night. Although the CR had already become the subject of scrutiny due to the timing and the lack of transparency, the funding bill is now expected to have even more defections after the text of the funding bill was actually made public.

'Soon they will have to face the American people and say, "We've tacked on hundreds of billions of dollars onto the debt because it was easier for us."'

"I had hoped to see Speaker Johnson grow a spine, but this bill full of pork shows he is a weak, weak man," Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky said in a Wednesday post on X. "The debt will continue to grow. Ultimately the dollar will fail. Democrats are clueless and Big Gov Republicans are complicit. A sad day for America."

"Conservative Republicans should start an OnlyFans account considering how often we get screwed," Republican Rep. Kat Cammack of Florida said in a Tuesday post on X. "The CR is a bad deal."

‘Twas three days before the gov't shutdown
And I’m at my desk
On page 54 of this 1,547 page mess.
The CR is garbage
Chocked full of carnage.
I’ll be a hard no
I won’t stoop that low.
— Rep. Paul Gosar, DDS (@RepGosar) December 18, 2024
 

Despite having the December 20 deadline on their calendars for months, leaders left the CR on the back burner. Consequently, lawmakers are frustrated that they are now forced to vote on a funding bill just days before the deadline.

"Congress has had months to negotiate a clean government funding bill to get us to Trump's term," Republican Rep. Michael Cloud of Texas said in a Tuesday post on X. "Yet, here they are again at the last second trying to jam a 1,500+ page CR that could be called for a vote before the required 72 hour rule. The DC Apparatus operates not on transparency, but behind closed doors away from the American people."

"There is no strategy," Daniel Turner, founder and executive director of Power the Future, told Blaze News. "The goal here is just for them to all go home for Christmas and to promise the American people that next year they will tackle it. That's been the strategy, or the regular operations of Capitol Hill, for the last 20 years."

The CR itself contains numerous provisions that are unrelated to the bare-bones approach many fiscal conservatives had hoped for. The funding bill includes the first pay raise for lawmakers since 2009 as well as an opt-out from Obamacare, $100 billion of disaster relief for hurricane victims, $30 billion of aid for farmers, and a crucial provision transferring the Robert F. Kennedy stadium to the District of Columbia.

In short, Johnson threw together a Christmas omnibus for lawmakers to deal with in the 11th hour.

While it's not unusual for Congress to put out a Christmas omnibus, Johnson notably said he would take it upon himself to break the tradition.

  US Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-La.), U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and US House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) listen during a Hanukkah reception at the US Capitol Building on December 17, 2024, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

"We have broken the Christmas omni," Johnson said during a press conference in September. "And I have no intention of going back to that terrible tradition. So there won’t be a Christmas omnibus. ... We’re not gonna do any buses.”

"People call me 'NostraThomas' for accurately predicting Speaker Johnson would use the Christmas recess to force a massive spending bill through Congress," Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky said in a Wednesday post on X. "After claiming he would not, Johnson is embracing a D.C. tradition that's nearly as old as decorating Christmas trees."

The Christmas omnibus will kick the can down the road until mid-March, roughly 100 days into President-elect Donald Trump's administration. Trump's hands are tied as a result, giving him and his administration no control over the budget for the first 100 days, weakening his ability to implement the MAGA mandate Americans voted for.

"It's always next year, and it's very frustrating," Turner told Blaze News. "When you see the American people gave a very decisive mandate on spending, on the cost of food, on the cost of energy, on the cost of goods and services, and still they're tacking on just absurd amounts of spending to make their jobs easier."

"Soon they will have to face the American people and say, 'We've tacked on hundreds of billions of dollars onto the debt because it was easier for us,'" Turner continued. "But it's not your job to do it the easy way. It's your job to do it the right way."

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