So Nu?

I am not surprised that Republican support for regulating big tech has nothing to do with consumer welfare or the common good, but instead intends to create punishment for firms that they think have not been nice enough to them.

If there is a narrative that runs though the modern right, it is the one created by psychopath and lover of serial killers Ayn Rand, which was in turn informed by the statements of child killer William Edward Hickman, "What is good for me is right."^*

If you do not believe in a common good,^† then the only reason for a law, or for that matter any collective action, is your own personal benefit:

Congressional Republicans released an antitrust plan for Big Tech yesterday with an announcement that made it clear their focus is not on boosting competition or reducing harms to online consumers but on alleged "censorship" of conservatives.

"Big Tech is out to get conservatives" is the first sentence in the "House Judiciary Republican Agenda for Taking on Big Tech." The "conservative response" to tech-industry problems "will speed up and strengthen antitrust enforcement, hold Big Tech accountable for its censorship, and increase transparency around Big Tech's decisions," the opening paragraph continues. The word "competition" never appears in the two-page plan. A separate plan previously released by House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) does mention competition, but McCarthy's plan also focuses mostly on supposed bias against conservatives.

………

The GOP said the "accountability" portion of its plan "subjects Big Tech to legal accountability for its censorship. Platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube are functionally the public square of the digital age. It is wrong that these platforms control and censor speech with impunity." Republicans said they propose to "create a statutory basis for Americans to directly challenge Big Tech in court for its censorship and silencing of conservatives."

………

The GOP is also trying to sideline FTC Chair Lina Khan, who was just appointed to the agency's top spot by President Joe Biden. Claiming that the "current system of splitting antitrust enforcement between the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission... empowers radical Biden bureaucrats at the expense of Americans," the GOP said it wants to "consolidate antitrust enforcement within the Department of Justice so that it is more effective and accountable."

Translation, "We want rich monopolists to donate to our campaigns." 

Even self described Paleoconservative Jerry thought that aggressive enforcement of antitrust law was essential to freedom.

………

By contrast, House Democrats' antitrust agenda focuses mostly on boosting competition to help small businesses and give consumers more choice. For example, the Democrats' Ending Platform Monopolies Act could break up tech companies like Amazon to eliminate "the ability of dominant platforms to leverage their control over across multiple business lines to self-preference and disadvantage competitors in ways that undermine free and fair competition."

Of course, this will crash on the filibuster, which is how many Democrats try to split the difference to suck up to their donors.

If there were a realistic chance of this passing, some Democrats in the house would be far less inclined to support these measures.

………

Republicans were angry that Democrats' antitrust agenda focused on boosting competition instead of trying to stamp out alleged anticonservative bias. After the June 24 votes, House Judiciary Committee Republicans issued a statement from Ranking Member Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), saying, "Big Tech is out to get conservatives. But rather than address Republican concerns of bias and censorship on the Internet, Democrats spent the last two days pushing radical antitrust legislation that will systematically change the United States economy as we know it... We look forward to introducing legislation in the coming days that holds Big Tech accountable and actually addresses censorship of conservatives online."

Oh, you delicate snowflakes.  

People are acting like you are bad just because you attempted a putsch.

^*As I have mentioned before, William Edward Hickman also kidnapped a 12 year old girl, held her for ransome, and then dismembered her

^†Margaret Thatcher stated this with view typical English rhetorical thrift when she said, "There's no such thing as society."