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Ohio Lawmakers Support Yost in Investigation of Facebook and Google

a photo of Attorney General Dave Yost
JO INGLES
/
STATEHOUSE NEWS BUREAU
Dave Yost is joining the U.S. Department of Justice to look further into possible violations committed against users by Facebook and Google.

The U.S. Department of Justice is looking into social media giants Facebook and Google to see if they are stifling competition in the industry.

Now top Ohio lawmakers say they want to work with Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost to aid in the state’s role in the investigation.

Attorney General Dave Yost has joined with eight other state attorneys general to investigate antitrust actions by those tech giants. He says though that usually happens when companies get so big they drive up costs, in this case the service is free. But users are paying by giving up valuable data that Facebook and Google sell.

“The consumers, Bill and Betty Buckeye, I would suggest to you are not the consumers. They are the product,” Yost says.

Yost and top lawmakers want hearings for Ohioans to share how they feel their privacy and security has been compromised. That information could be used to craft the state’s role in the federal investigation.

Jo Ingles is a professional journalist who covers politics and Ohio government for the Ohio Public Radio and Television for the Ohio Public Radio and Television Statehouse News Bureau. She reports on issues of importance to Ohioans including education, legislation, politics, and life and death issues such as capital punishment. Jo started her career in Louisville, Kentucky in the mid 80’s when she helped produce a televised presidential debate for ABC News, worked for a creative services company and served as a general assignment report for a commercial radio station. In 1989, she returned back to her native Ohio to work at the WOSU Stations in Columbus where she began a long resume in public radio.