The US justice department signalled that it intends to pursue technology companies over competition and free speech issues, after President Donald Trump warned last week that Google, Facebook and Twitter should be careful where they tread.
Just as Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer of Facebook, and Jack Dorsey, chief executive of Twitter, appeared to pass unscathed through a Senate Intelligence committee hearing about Russian interference on US elections, Jeff Sessions, the attorney-general, announced a new line of attack.
He said he would hold a meeting with state attorneys-general to discuss what he called the “growing concern” about whether social media platforms “may be hurting competition and intentionally stifling the free exchange of ideas”.