D.C. antitrust fight takes Big Tech by surprise

Conventional wisdom in both Washington and on Wall Street had pegged regulatory action around privacy, First Amendment issues and advertising rules.

• A Republican administration wasn't expected to take a hard line against the "bigness" of successful American icons.
• After hearings focused on social media's impact on elections, Facebook and Twitter looked more vulnerable to D.C. action than Amazon, Apple and Google — which are included in new investigations by DOJ and the FTC.

The bottom line: Meaningful privacy legislation looks less likely than it did just six months ago, so regulators are looking at other approaches. 

Go deeper: What Apple, Facebook and Google each mean by "privacy"

Editor's note: This story originally described an antitrust inquiry as by House Democrats. The effort by the House Judiciary Committee is bipartisan.