Conservative college president raises concerns over ‘monopolistic’ culture of tech industries

Hillsdale College President Larry Arnn expressed concerns over what he called the “monopolistic” nature of tech giants, such as Google and Facebook, in an interview that aired Wednesday on “Rising.”

“The trouble is, those are places are in near-monopolistic positions and they are protected from competition,” the head of the private conservative school told Hill.TV’s Julia Manchester earlier this month.

“What if, for example, there was a law that anybody can delegate his access to social media to anybody else, and [each] individual could have one social media site, and it could be put wherever you want it to go,” he continued. “There are things like that that would compromise the power of these places.” 

“They can still be rich and powerful, and have more money than Jehovah himself, but they should be in competition,” he said. “Consumers have a right to expect an alternative way to choose.” 

Arnn’s comments come as large tech firms face increased scrutiny over alleged bias against conservatives. 

Google faced backlash in September after a leaked video of an all-hands staff meeting following the presidential election in 2016 showed executives and employees making disparaging remarks about President Trump. 

Arnn, who was not referring to the incident, said that employees can work somewhere else if they are unhappy with the rhetoric at a company. 

“Anybody’s got a right to say whatever he wants to say. Not everyone has a right to work at Google or Facebook,” Arnn said. “If they want to demand of their employees to control their speech, I don’t care, the employees can work somewhere else.” 

— Julia Manchester