William Barr spent most of the 24 years between his first and second stints as U.S. attorney general working for Verizon as general counsel and serving on the board of Time Warner, two companies that over that period were among Silicon Valley’s biggest policy opponents. Now Mr. Barr holds the fate of Google and Apple in his hands, as the Justice Department considers antitrust action against both.
During his time at Verizon, the telecom firm faced off against Google, Apple, Facebook and other Silicon Valley companies on issues such as net neutrality—rules promoted by the tech industry aimed at stopping internet providers like Verizon from favoring traffic from any one site. Verizon, like other cellular carriers, also became frustrated that Google, Yahoo and others built multibillion-dollar businesses without paying the telecommunications companies for the use of their networks.
