out of office before the election. Cicilline coasted
to victory and served eight years as mayor
before being elected to Congress in 2010.
Cianci spent more than four years in federal
prison, then returned to Providence as a radio
talk show host.
“I’m not a good enemy to have,” Cianci wrote
in his 2011 autobiography, “Politics and Pasta,”
in which he took credit for tarnishing Cicilline’s
reputation with on-air attacks. “But what could
Cicilline do to me? Put me in prison? Been there,
done that, and I brought home the T-shirt.”
Silicon Valley’s tech giants might also not make
good enemies. For now, Cicilline is seeking
their cooperation and emphasizes that the
investigation is “not a prosecution.” But he
can also wield subpoena power should that
approach fail.
Cicilline now runs the Judiciary Committee’s
antitrust subcommittee, a typically sleepy body
that he aims to beef up. Its investigation will
explore whether these online platforms are
stifling competition, favoring their own services
or threatening the democratic process by virtue
of their control over how people get information.
Given the popularity of these tech services,
Cicilline said it’s also important to show
Americans “why this misuse of their data, the
exclusion of rivals, why the promotion of one
product over another without them knowing
about it, matters.”
Tech companies so far are expressing their
willingness to help inform the probe, but
some of their proxies complain that Cicilline’s
approach looks more like a show trial.
“For Cicilline and everybody else in that camp,
it’s clear these companies are guilty,” said Rob
Atkinson, president of the industry-backed
antfer
(Antfer)
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