(Reuters) – In the run-up to the U.S. 2020 presidential election, many Democratic White House contenders have argued in favor of both breaking apart or tightening regulation of firms akin to Facebook Inc (FB.O), Alphabet Inc’s Google (GOOGL.O) and Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O). FILE PHOTO: The logos of Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google are seen in a mix picture from Reuters recordsdata. REUTERS/File Photos/File PhotoRepublican President Donald Trump’s administration has additionally stepped up its scrutiny of Big Tech, conducting a wide-ranging probe into whether or not main digital tech firms engaged in anticompetitive practices. Social media platforms are beneath specific scrutiny over their efforts to curb dissemination of misinformation and false claims, years after U.S. intelligence companies mentioned Russia used them to wage an affect operation aimed toward interfering with the 2016 election. Moscow has denied the declare. Here are the main presidential candidates’ positions on Big Tech. PRESIDENT TRUMP Trump, whose digital marketing campaign helped propel him to the White House in 2016, has stopped in need of calling for tech giants to be damaged up, however mentioned “obviously there is something going on in terms of monopoly,” when requested about main tech firms previously. Trump’s Department of Justice introduced in July it was conducting an antitrust overview of “market-leading online platforms.” Big tech firms akin to Facebook, Google, Apple Inc (AAPL.O) and Amazon additionally face a slew of U.S. antitrust probes by the federal authorities, state attorneys normal and Congress. FORMER VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN Biden slammed large tech firms in a January interview with the New York Times, saying he had “never been a fan of Facebook” and arguing that on-line platforms shouldn’t be allowed immunity for content material posted by customers. He additionally clashed with Facebook and Google over their political advert insurance policies after they refused to take down a Trump advert that the Biden workforce mentioned contained false claims about his son Hunter’s dealings with Ukraine. Biden, who was vp within the Silicon Valley-friendly Obama administration, has mentioned that splitting up firms akin to Facebook was “something we should take a really hard look at” however that it was “premature” to make a ultimate judgment. U.S. SENATOR ELIZABETH WARREN Warren is main the cost to interrupt up large tech firms on the grounds they maintain outsized affect and stifle competitors. She has known as for laws to limit giant tech platforms – which she would designate as “platform utilities” -from proudly owning and taking part in a market on the similar time. Under this regulation, Apple wouldn’t be allowed to each run the App Store and promote its personal apps on it, for instance. The senator from Massachusetts additionally mentioned she would nominate regulators to unwind anticompetitive mergers akin to Facebook’s offers for WhatsApp and Instagram, and Amazon’s deal for the Whole Foods grocery store chain. Warren has criticized Facebook’s coverage of exempting politicians’ adverts from fact-checking, working intentionally false adverts that claimed Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg had endorsed Trump’s re-election bid. U.S. SENATOR BERNIE SANDERS Sanders, who steadily criticizes company affect, has additionally known as for the breakup of huge tech firms akin to Facebook and Amazon. The Vermont lawmaker has additionally mentioned that he can have the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) overview all mergers which have taken place in the course of the Trump administration. His broad plan to reshape company America would additionally mandate all giant firms be owned partly by their staff. Sanders has been notably vocal in his assaults on Amazon over its tax contributions and dealing situations at its warehouses. PETE BUTTIGIEG In normal, Pete Buttigieg, who grew to become Facebook’s 287th person shortly after it was launched in 2004 at Harvard University, the place he was a pupil, has been extra reluctant to slam the tech giants than another candidates. Though he has mentioned that the breakup of huge tech firms “should be on the table,” the previous South Bend, Indiana, mayor doesn’t suppose it’s a politician’s place to designate which firms ought to be damaged up. U.S. SENATOR AMY KLOBUCHAR Klobuchar has made oversight of huge expertise firms considered one of her main points in Congress and argued for knowledge privateness legal guidelines and web neutrality safeguards as priorities at her marketing campaign launch in February. She has not endorsed Warren’s plan for his or her breakup, saying that she would first need investigations. Her plan for her first 100 days in workplace contains an “aggressive retrospective review of mergers,” which she mentioned she would pay for with an additional merger price on “megamergers.” MICHAEL BLOOMBERG Former New York City Mayor Bloomberg instructed the Bay Area News Group in January that breaking apart large tech firms “just to be nasty is not an answer” and that he doesn’t suppose Senators Warren and Sanders “know what they’re talking about” on the problem. He mentioned he was open to extra restricted antitrust enforcement. The billionaire media mogul, who has launched a tv and digital advert blitz, says on-line platforms ought to be legally handled the identical as information publications. As the founding father of Bloomberg News, he made his fortune promoting monetary info to Wall Street companies. ANDREW YANG Although Yang has mentioned “we would be well served” if large tech firms had been to interrupt themselves up, he has argued that competitors shouldn’t be the reply to key issues with large tech. Yang, the previous chief government of a start-up, has centered on the detrimental results of tech on psychological well being and mentioned he would create a Department of Attention Economy to take a look at find out how to responsibly design and use apps and gadgets. Yang, who has benefited from a surge of grassroots social media supporters, instructed the New York Times in January that he didn’t “have confidence that any of my opponents get the internet.” TOM STEYER California billionaire Steyer says that monopolies both should be dismantled or regulated, however that to win towards Trump, Democrats should “show the American people that we don’t just know how to tax and have programs to break up companies.” Steyer’s marketing campaign has been famous for its huge advert spending, which helped push him to the controversy stage, together with greater than $17 million in Facebook adverts, in response to Democratic digital agency Bully Pulpit Interactive. Reporting by Elizabeth Culliford; enhancing by Soyoung Kim and Jonathan OatisOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.