Ashley Moody Discusses Threat Of Big Tech: 'Gobbling Up Independent Thought'

4/2/2025

At today's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Sen. Ashley Moody (R-FL) discussed problems with big tech.

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Transcript

00:00Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman, appreciate the opportunity to address such an important

00:05topic.

00:06I think it may be one of the most important topics we're dealing with in America today.

00:11In fact, I appreciated each and every one of your comments.

00:14I thought it was very well-reasoned, insightful.

00:18I can tell you have been grappling with these issues for a long time.

00:24It's hard, I think, for Americans that are benefiting in many ways in the use of technology

00:32in their daily lives.

00:34Over the last, let's say, two decades, technology has made each of our lives easier.

00:39I, for one, when I became the Attorney General in Florida and was still the mom of a school-aged

00:46child said, there's no way I could do this in a state the size of Florida in the effectiveness

00:51we were doing it without Amazon and Instacart, and I go on and on and on.

00:57It's ushered us into this century as a country, prosperous, we've seen technology advance

01:05in many ways, technology has helped this nation.

01:08We are benefiting from that.

01:11Because of those benefits, I think we all expected more and more companies and competitors

01:18to emerge.

01:20Because we saw less and less of that over time, I think that is when the concerns really

01:27started surfacing.

01:29I have to thank you, Mr. Kent, for your comments.

01:32I know a lot of the folks on this subcommittee and, of course, the Judiciary Committee as

01:36a whole have been working very hard to make sure we are delivering not only on what information

01:42is available to Americans on how this affects consumers, but really deliberating whether

01:50we need new laws.

01:52One thing that you said really resonated with me, you used the term gobbling up.

01:58It's something that I have said, I call it the great gobble up.

02:01We've gobbled up the ad tech markets, gobbled up little tech companies that were emerging

02:12and sometimes stifling further innovation there.

02:17We've gobbled up markets.

02:18It's gobbled up now independent thought.

02:23Companies have gotten so big, no one can argue that they are now gobbling up independent

02:29thought.

02:30In fact, as they are espousing to be town squares, they are at the same time deplatforming,

02:35shadow banning, stifling speech.

02:39Because this great gobble up has come to reality, we are now forced with—many of us have been

02:46working on this so many years.

02:47You also said it takes forever for the court to address one case.

02:53In fact, as AG, I led bipartisan cases.

02:56One of the first cases I worked on was Google.

02:59I could go on and on in terms of the actions we brought that we are still waiting to see

03:04resolution to the benefit of our citizens and specifically consumers.

03:09I think the frustration with courts and their delay is surfacing in many ways.

03:14I speak with my colleagues often about how we need to speed up court resolution of conflict

03:21and chaos because that is what is guaranteed by this country and only then can we the people

03:26trust that the structure of government is serving it.

03:29I expect that we are going to see demands for more effective and speedy review in other

03:35matters.

03:37What can you tell us, Mr. Kent, about that statement?

03:40That the frustration of the delay in courts, in many respects, justice delayed is justice

03:46denied.

03:48What can you say in terms of the need for immediacy for Congress to address this issue

03:53through policy and lawmaking because enforcement through litigation has not worked?

04:00Sure.

04:01Thank you for the question.

04:04It is immediate and profound, the need to move on this.

04:08The effects and a lot of the symptoms I've heard over the years that are all downstream,

04:13whether it be speech and potentially censorship of it or privacy or disinformation, pick your

04:20concern are all downstream from too much market power and gatekeepers.

04:24They're very bipartisan.

04:26It stretches across the aisle.

04:28The impact that's happening right now, particularly with our members, news and entertainment companies,

04:32is it's squeezing the lifeblood out of what funds news and entertainment.

04:35Whatever your preferences are as a consumer, there's not enough funding of it because all

04:40the money and the control, whether it be the discovery, the data, the monetization are

04:44all being gobbled up, to go back to that, by Google and Facebook and these market power

04:49players.

04:50And that's the issue.

04:51And so we need movement before we end up just suffocating them.

04:57Just under.

04:59Just under.

05:00You remain one of the most prompt members ever to serve in the United States Senate.

05:05A high compliment.

05:06Maybe you'll approve Contagious.

05:07Senator Turbin, you're up next.

05:08And one of the newest ones.

05:09Yes, yes, yes, exactly.

05:12Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Ashley Moody Discusses Threat Of Big Tech: 'Gobbling Up Independent Thought'

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