Facebook co-founder launches anti-monopoly trust
One of Facebook’s co-founders has launched a $10m (£7.8m) anti-monopoly trust in an attempt to place extra scrutiny on big tech firms.
Chris Hughes will launch the fund to support academic and policy research into market power.
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It will be a part of his Economic Security Project, which was originally set up to explore the viability of universal basic income (UBI).
Partners for the initiative include the Ford Foundation, Knight Foundation and George Soros-backed Open Society Foundations.
Hughes said in a statement that the trust will scrutinise a wide range of industries, including the tech sector.
“We are at a pivotal moment where cultural and political momentum are aligned to rein in the unchecked behavior of big tech,” he said.
“In addition to the necessary scrutiny of the tech industry, there is also a need and opportunity to take meaningful action on monopoly power across industries that’s led to corporate interests in the driver’s seat of our political and economic system for far too long.”
Hughes left Facebook in 2007 and has since become a major critic of the social media giant.
He called for Facebook to be broken up in May this year in an op-ed for the New York Times.
Hughes said: “The most problematic aspect of Facebook’s power is Mark [Zuckerberg]’s unilateral control over speech.”
The new initiative has been launched as Facebook has been subjected to antitrust enquiries from US Congress.
Read more: Facebook currency Libra dealth fresh regulatory blow by G7
Facebook’s Libra digital currency project has also come under fire recently, with the G7 slapping new regulations on the company.
The group of the world’s largest economies said Libra must not be launched until it can demonstrate it will be safe and secure.