Facebook and Google are staring down the barrel of yet more antitrust scrutiny, according to a Friday report from The Wall Street Journal.
Sources familiar with the matter told The Journal that two separate groups of attorneys general were preparing to launch antitrust investigations into Facebook and Google.
Reports last month had already suggested that states could be preparing to launch such investigations.
The Washington Post reported earlier this week that Google was to be the subject of an antitrust investigation by "more than half" of the state attorneys general.
According to The Journal, the Google investigation is expected to be officially announced Monday and will consist of roughly 36 state attorneys general led by Ken Paxton, a Texas Republican.
A second group led by Letitia James, New York's Democratic attorney general, will investigate Facebook.
"We continue to engage in bipartisan conversations about the unchecked power of large tech companies," James told The Journal. "The attorneys general involved have concerns over the control of personal data by large tech companies and will hold them accountable for anticompetitive practices that endanger privacy and consumer data."
"People have multiple choices for every one of the services we provide. We understand that if we stop innovating, people can easily leave our platform. This underscores the competition we face, not only in the US but around the globe. We will work constructively with state attorneys general and we welcome a conversation with policymakers about the competitive environment in which we operate," Facebook's vice president of state and local policy Will Castleberry said in a statement sent to Business Insider.
A Google spokeswoman restated the company's position to Business Insider that it would "continue to work constructively with regulators, including attorneys general."
Facebook was stung by a $5 billion fine from the Federal Trade Commission in June over its handling of user data in the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
The FTC also opened an antitrust investigation into the company over its core social-media business.
No formal antitrust investigation into Google has been announced, but reports have been circulating since May that the Department of Justice is readying its own investigation into the company. The DOJ announced a broad investigation into big tech as a whole in July.
