Essential tech platforms should be regulated like utilities – White House advisor

White House advisor Steve Bannon believes that essential tech platforms such as Facebook and Google should be regulated as utilities. Speaking anonymously to The Intercept, three sources close to Brannon said that the advisor believes that Facebook and Google have become a necessity in contemporary life. Regulating them as utilities would mean that they are more tightly regulated in what the platforms are able to do and which prices they are able to charge. The plan is akin to the FCC’s order that already regulates Internet service providers as utilities – an order which the Trump administration is seeking to reverse.