It happened. Yesterday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, and Apple CEO Tim Cook were trotted out (with help from Cisco Webex) in front of the House Judiciary's antitrust subcommittee.
So that you
don’t have to experience six hours of grandstanding and bizarre interior
decor, here’s the tl;dwbcihal (too long; didn’t watch because I have a
life).
No. 1. Dem lawmakers’ gloves are off
Subcommittee Chair David Cicilline, Rep. Pramila Jayapal, and Rep. Val Demings all asked the CEOs spiky questions.
- Jayapal grilled
Zuckerberg over whether Facebook copies competitors in order to smoke
them out. She cited a quote from Instagram cofounder Kevin Systrom, who
expressed concern that Zuck would go into “destroy mode” if Instagram
refused Facebook’s acquisition offer.
No. 2: Tech CEOs think their markets are plenty competitive
Or at least,
that's what they tell congressional committees. The four CEOs swore up
and down that their sectors are as competitive as a cheerleading
championship in a teen drama.
- “We compete hard, we compete fairly, we compete to be the best,” quoth Zuck, whom we suspect just started The Last Dance.
- Tim Cook defended the
App Store's steep fees by talking about the competition to attract
developers. "Essentially, it's so competitive I'd describe it as a
street fight for market share in the smartphone business."
No. 3: Conservatives believe tech is against them
Republicans
including Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, Rep. Jim Jordan, and Rep. Matt Gaetz
all questioned Zuckerberg and Pichai about whether their platforms
discriminate against or suppress conservative voices.
- Rep. Jordan kicked things off in his opening statement with a fiery, “Big Tech is out to get conservatives.”
And...congressional
committees aren’t above shouting matches. At one point, Rep. Jordan
interrupted Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon after Scanlon referred to Jordan’s
allegations as “fringe conspiracy theories.”
Bottom line: Contempt for Big Tech has clearly become bipartisan in the U.S. Congress, but often for very different reasons.
Looking ahead...these
companies will be out of the headlines for maybe about 25 minutes
before roaring back. They all report earnings later today.
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