'Crushed': Ken Buck amps up battle against big tech in new book

Ken Buck says his conversion from a staunch free-market conservative to one of Washington's leading critics of big tech was sparked by testimony he heard on a frigid morning three years ago in Boulder.

As the lone Republican who attended a remote hearing of the House Judiciary Committee's subcommittee on antitrust, Buck says he initially thought the panel on competition in the digital economy would be a waste of time.

The former prosecutor, who was reelected in November to a fifth term representing the 4th Congressional District — covering parts of Weld and Douglas counties and Colorado's Eastern Plains — recounts the story in "Crushed: Big Tech's War on Free Speech," published on Jan. 17 by Humanix Books.

"I believe in free, unregulated markets," Buck writes. "When I began to examine the evils perpetrated by Big Tech, I thought the market would correct itself."

But after hearing from founders and executives of smaller local tech companies at the committee hearing at the University of Colorado law school and later over lunch, Buck says he changed his mind.

The witnesses, he says, "described a transformed marketplace that mutated from open and creative to hostile and domineering." In unison, this group of "incredibly dynamic, innovative, independent, and successful Americans" told lawmakers they felt powerless in the face of the enormous firms that had already carved up the market, he says. 

Describing the testimony as "a plea for help," Buck recalls that he was struck most by the story told by Tile executive Kristen Daru, who described how the fast-growing startup established a market for simple tracking devices — attach one to a backpack and find it using a smartphone app — but quickly ran into Apple, which developed a knock-off version and not only sold it but hampered Tile's access to the vastly larger company's consumer base through its app store.

"Tile was competing on a playing field while Apple was actively changing the landscape," Buck says, adding that Daru's testimony "challenged my beliefs about economic fairness and my cynicism about burdensome regulation" by making it clear that big tech had weaponized its market dominance.

"This was a watershed moment for me," Buck notes. "I am a hardcore conservative. I believe in government staying out of the way whenever possible. But what I’d heard in Boulder could not stay in Boulder."

Since then, Buck says he's been energized by what he describes a "righteous calling," providing a sense of purpose for being in Congress — to try to level the field for companies, consumers and a country whose fabric he has concluded is endangered.

Along the way, he's forged unlikely alliances with fellow lawmakers, gained notoriety for rejecting products and services provided by the companies he's battling, and most recently penned the new book, his third, in an effort to percolate the topic into a broader conversation.

"Politics is downstream from public opinion, and the more information you can get to the public, the more the public can get involved in policy change like this," Buck told Colorado Politics on the day "Crushed" hit the stands.

He added that the barrier isn't very high.

"One of the things that you've got to give the public credit for — they don't necessarily talk the antitrust lingo, but they know there's something creepy when big tech knows where they are, what they're searching for, who they're talking to," Buck said. "There's something creepy about their personal information being exposed like that."

While his book discusses other companies — including some that have been swallowed up by the giants — Buck takes particular aim at Google, Amazon, Apple and Facebook, arguing that each exerts monopolistic control over crucial markets.

"I have no problem when businesses seek to monetize human interaction," he said. "As an American, however, I have a huge problem when those businesses divide and censor my fellow citizens and seek to control the marketplace of ideas for their own profit."

Buck said he was inspired to write "Crushed" after delivering a speech on the topic at last year's CPAC gathering and in the book's acknowledgements credits Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy with suggesting the project.

Like in his other books — "Drain the Swamp: How Washington Corruption is Worse than You Think," published in 2017, and "Capitol of Freedom: Restoring American Greatness," published in 2020 — Buck casts a wide net and takes a circuitous route to undergird his points.

His first book briefly topped the political bestseller charts and spawned a web-based video series that evolved into "The Swamp," an up-close and surprisingly personal HBO documentary about Washington's insular political culture seen through the eyes of Buck and a pair of fellow conservative lawmakers. In the book, Buck offers a peek behind the curtain at the nearly overwhelming array of perks and pressures that awaited after he was elected to Congress in 2014. Comparing the lavish welcome incoming lawmakers received to "Vienna in some sort of fairy tale," Buck sketches the incentives he says perpetuate a culture of corruption that allows an enormous government to grow ever-larger.

“It is an insular process directed by power-hungry party elites who live like kings and govern like bullies,” Buck wrote, previewing the populist approach he's taken toward the tech companies he assails in similar terms.

Buck's second book, "Capitol of Freedom," takes readers on a tour of the U.S. Capitol and Washington, D.C., using the art and architecture as jumping-off points to bring foundational American principles to life. The more overtly partisan tome — Buck repeatedly accuses progressives politicians of spurning the Constitution to implement a socialist agenda — didn't make as much of a splash as its predecessor. Its author, however, casts aspersions on both sides of the aisle from the same little-guy perspective.

"The truth is, liberals have all but abandoned our Constitution and so-called conservatives largely ignore the Constitution everywhere but on the campaign trail," he writes. "But the history of the Capitol doesn't change; it continues to speak the same remarkable story of who we were, who we are, and what we ought to be."

In brisk, conversational prose, Buck opens "Crushed" with a history of monopolies, from the British East India Company — he describes how the worldwide merchant's heavy-handed domination of worldwide markets helped spur the American revolution — to American robber barons of the late 19th Century. But he says that unlike their retail and industrial predecessors, the new tech behemoths represent a threat not just to markets but to free speech and democracy itself.

"Antitrust law is very complicated and esoteric, and what I did with this book is to tell stories about how monopolies impact both the business marketplace and the marketplace of ideas," Buck said, explaining how he attempted to lay a historic foundation for his argument.

"We had an industrial revolution in the late 1800s, early 1900s, and really smart, shrewd business people — Rockefellers, Carnegies and others — controlled railroads and oil and banks, and it became very dangerous, and the federal government acted and opened up the marketplace and really created the economy that the rest of the world became very envious of," he said.

"And then we had this new revolution that is a result of the internet with e-commerce and social media. And again, a group of very shrewd, smart business people took advantage of it and created monopolies, and it's time for the legislative branch — Congress — to act again and create laws that inspire, encourage competition in the marketplace so that our economy once again is this booming economy and benefits innovators in this country."

The four companies Buck targets in his book might be ubiquitous and seem inescapable, but Buck says he does his best to avoid using their products, even offering a chuckling demurral when told this reporter had purchased an e-edition of "Crushed" from Amazon before the interview.

"If Amazon wants to sell the book and Amazon makes a profit, that's great, but I don't buy from Amazon, and, in the book, I tell people not to buy from Amazon," he said. "I have an Apple phone, but there's really a choice between two of these companies on which phone you want to use. I'm sorry, I live in the real world and I'm not off the grid, but as much as possible, I make choices to avoid using their products and try to use other products."

He was referencing "The Congressman Who Doesn't Use Google," a Politico story published a little over a year ago, which reads almost like an anthropologist's account of encountering the inhabitant of remote village, cut off from civilization.

“I don’t have a problem with big tech,” Buck told the reporter. “I have a problem with monopolies and how they use their monopoly power.”

He described his approach to Colorado Politics as both principled and practical.

"I don't search with Google," he said. "I use DuckDuckGo, and it may be two seconds slower, or maybe I have to refine my search a little bit more, but I'm OK with that. And I don't need same-day delivery — I can actually survive by getting in a car and going to the store or just waiting a few days and buying from another retailer."

In his book, Buck lays out his rationale.

"No matter where we each may stand on the political spectrum, I believe Americans value the free flow of information and the principles of individual liberty more than they value same-day shipping," he writes. "I believe that while many Americans love social media and the convenience of search engines, the majority would be horrified by the thought of Facebook, Google, or Twitter owners deciding what subjects are permissible to discuss — or which news articles are okay to share, and which are banned."

Buck's book focuses on examples of what he says are big tech companies suppressing conservative speech, but in an appearance last month on MSNBC's Meet the Press Now with Chuck Todd, Buck nodded toward bipartisan grievances.

"I boycott a lot of products that I don't believe are morally correct, and Google is one of those products," he said. "I think what they do is they suppress speech. I've witnessed it on the conservative side; I have no doubt that they suppress speech on the liberal side."

It's mostly been a lonely road in a party that isn't typically prone to pursue antitrust legislation, but Buck says he's been winning over fellow Republicans one conversation at a time. He's also found partners across the aisle, including co-sponsoring antitrust legislation with Democrats and fellow judiciary committee members Joe Neguse, who represents the neighboring 2nd Congressional District, and David Cicilline, who chaired the House Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law in the last Congress.

"I came to this issue as a champion for free markets," Buck said. "Then when I learned more and more about these companies, it was clear to me that we needed to take action and create a free market, because there isn't a free market when 94% of the people use Google for search ... It may have started lonely. It's not lonely now. There are a lot of strong advocates."

Senators who share his passion on the issue include Republicans Mike Lee of Utah and Ted Cruz of Texas — Cruz wrote the forward to "Crushed" — and Democrats Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, adding, "It's not Republicans or Democrats getting together, it's leadership preventing this from moving forward."

Last fall, three bipartisan bills sponsored by Buck and his allies passed into law, but he acknowledges they are "procedural," rather than amounting to the kind of major blows he's hoping to strike. The bills increase funding for antitrust enforcement, require companies to disclose more information when applying for mergers and give state attorney generals more room to pursue big tech violations.

Even though Buck was ranking member — the senior Republican — on the antitrust subcommittee in the last Congress and so was poised to take over the gavel after the GOP won control of the House, a more libertarian-leaning colleague, Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, landed the position last week, potentially stymying the subcommittee's aggressive antitrust agenda.

Still, Buck said he's optimistic about at least a couple of bills he's championing, including one to allow smaller news outlets to band together to negotiate with big tech companies, and another to prevent tech giants from discriminating against companies that want to sell products on their platforms.

"It gives me the opportunity to bring a complex area together, and I just look forward to being able to lead on an issue like this that I think will will make a difference," Buck said. "It took me a few years in Congress to find the issue that I think can make a difference in this country, and this was the issue."