Four of America’s richest and most powerful tech CEOs faced a grueling audience before the US House of Representatives’ antitrust subcommittee Wednesday, facing harsh…
Four of America’s richest and most powerful tech CEOs faced a grueling audience before the US House of Representatives’ antitrust subcommittee Wednesday, facing harsh questioning about alleged predatory business practices, theft of digital content and aggressive copying and purchasing of competing businesses. The hearing, already more than three hours long, has proved uncomfortable for Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Apple’s Tim Cook and Alphabet’s Sundar Pichai.
Lawmakers came prepared. They showed up with receipts, internal corporate emails and the results of interviews from smaller companies that said they were harmed by anti-competitive practices. In many cases, the tech bosses simply rejected the premise of the questions, which almost uniformly portrayed the companies as monopolistic, ruthless or both.
The hearing, held virtually amid the coronavirus outbreak, is the culmination of a 13-month investigation into Big Tech’s dominance. The participation of the four CEOs, who are among the most recognizable names in business, as well as technology, marked the first time they had spoken to Congress as a group. Bezos, whose early participation was marred by a technical glitch, is attending his first-ever public hearing.
If the tenor of the questions is an indication, the committee appears poised to find new ways to corral the tech giants. Questions have portrayed the companies stomping on the invisible hand of the free market to further their own business. A report from the committee, which will synthesize the results of six hearings and more than 1.3 million documents, was delayed due to the pandemic but is expected sometime this year.
The bitter tone of the hearing is hardly surprising. Most of Congressional hearings cater to grandstanding and political point-scoring — both of which were on display Wednesday — more than fact-finding. Lawmakers used their five minutes per round of questioning to make speeches to the CEOs. They often interrupted the witnesses as they answered, which, of course, prevented the CEOs from filibustering.
In his opening statement, US Rep. David Cicilline, a Democrat of Rhode Island, set the confrontational tone, raising concerns that Big Tech could consolidate power even more fully during the coronavirus pandemic. He said it was important to confront monopoly power so it doesn’t crush other businesses.
« Our founders would not bow before a king, nor should we bow before the emperors of an online economy, » said Cicilline, the chairman of the subcommittee.
