(Bloomberg) -- Microsoft Corp.’s market dominance should get the same antitrust scrutiny from Congress as other tech giants, said the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, who questioned why it appears Democrats have given the company a pass.
In a letter Monday, Ohio Representative Jim Jordan outlined Microsoft’s acquisition strategy, size and market concentration to ask why the panel’s Democrats haven’t included the company in antitrust probes and in proposed legislation aimed at Facebook Inc., Apple Inc., Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Amazon.com Inc.
Jordan said Antitrust Subcommittee Chairman David Cicilline, a Rhode Island Democrat, was unclear when asked whether Microsoft would be in scope of the legislation that the committee plans to take up on Wednesday.
“As Democrats have excluded Microsoft from antitrust scrutiny, commentators have noted how Microsoft has taken advantage of the circumstances to pursue an aggressive acquisition strategy,” Jordan says in the letter, which is addressed to Microsoft President Brad Smith.
The letter also accused Microsoft of using its Bing search tool and Microsoft Office to censor conservative content and push language favored by progressives. Jordan asked Smith to “explain Microsoft’s basis for censoring user content” on several specific examples and explain whether he expects the company to fall under the scope of Cicilline’s legislation.
