Washington, D.C. — The American Economic Liberties Project released the following statement in response to Facebook’s recent deal to restore news sharing in Australia.

“Dominant firms shouldn’t be able to take entire democratic nations hostage. We urge American enforcers to accelerate the break-up of Facebook and Google, as these corporations are a threat to democracy,” said Matt Stoller, Research Director at the American Economic Liberties Project. “On the specifics of this law, public reporting suggests there is little change to the Australian code, which means that Facebook lost this negotiation. That said, the amendments aren’t yet publicly available so we cannot analyze them. This fight was never about one law, which, despite its drawbacks, did force platforms to be transparent in their operations and bargain with publishers. It is about Facebook and Google being too powerful to govern.”

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The American Economic Liberties Project works to ensure America’s system of commerce is structured to advance, rather than undermine, economic liberty, fair commerce, and a secure, inclusive democracy. Economic Liberties believes true economic liberty means entrepreneurs and businesses large and small succeed on the merits of their ideas and hard work; commerce empowers consumers, workers, farmers, and engineers instead of subjecting them to discrimination and abuse from financiers and monopolists; foreign trade arrangements support domestic security and democracy; and wealth is broadly distributed to support equitable political power.