The US government has created something called the AMERICA Act to break up big tech companies such as Google and Meta. This act will help make it more difficult for these companies to dominate the online advertisement industry.
Huge digital advertising companies (the ones that handle more than $20 billion in sales) aren’t allowed to be both an ad exchange and either of the two platforms – either a demand-side or supply-side platform. A company that owns a supply-side platform can’t own a demand-side system (or vice versa), and those who buy and sell ads also are not allowed to have either type of platform, except if it’s just so they can advertise their own products.
Companies of any size that make more than $5 billion in transactions need to be honest, fair, and transparent when it comes to giving out ads. They should also make sure to provide everyone accessing their technical capabilities and data with equal opportunity. Plus, anything they do on both sides of the market must be protected by a ‘firewall’ or else there could be trouble due to abusing rights or unfairness.
The bill is sponsored by some senators that include Mike Lee, Amy Klobuchar, Ted Cruz and Elizabeth Warren. They want Google and Meta to sell part of their advertisement businesses in order to follow the law. Amazon and Apple also have to think about this new law called the AMERICA Act.
When you sign up for BuyTechBlog, you’re also agreeing to follow their terms and privacy policy. Recently, sponsors (people backing a project) proposed a bill that targets Google. Government officials and several states think Google is cheating by controlling most of the online advertisement market. This situation lets them charge more money than other companies.
We’ve asked Google and Meta for their opinion on a specific situation. In the past, these companies have tried to stop bills and court cases that wanted to block them from advertising products or services.
If the AMERICA Act passes, then Google and Meta will be in a lot of trouble because they make most of their money from advertisement sales. Meta is using that money to support other projects, like creating the “metaverse”. Unfortunately, we don’t know how much money they would lose if these companies had to remove advertisements, but it’s possible they might have to change how they do business.
