The mask is off. Apple and Google aren’t just phone makers or software providers: they are unelected gatekeepers of the digital economy. Their two-company stranglehold on the app ecosystem through iOS and Android–used by roughly 315 million Americans–is crushing innovation, fleecing developers and consumers, and kneecapping American tech leadership.

Momentum is building against these twin monopolies in America and abroad. Just look at the last few weeks to see that the tide is turning. Today, Rep. Kat Cammack introduced the App Store Fairness Act, a bill that would help restore fairness and competition to the mobile ecosystem. Last week, a California judge found Apple in contempt of court and slammed company executives for willfully violating an order to change its anticompetitive app store practices–and then lying about it. The week before that, the EU concluded a year-long investigation and found that Apple was harming consumers and developers with its policies and fined it for anticompetitive behavior. (The EU issued a similar preliminary finding against Google in March for its policies in the Google Play marketplace.) (RELATED: Rep. Cammack Drops Hammer On Big Tech With Bill To Smash Apple, Google Walled Gardens)

Apple has cynically........

© The Daily Caller