Zuckerberg, Bezos, and Pichai Testify before Congress

The House Antitrust Subcommittee questioned the heads of Facebook, Apple, Google and Amazon Wednesday.

Lawmakers scrutinized their approach to the competition, data use, and skyrocketing revenues, accusing them of having too much influence on the market, threatening competition, and sometimes democracy itself.

“Our founders would not bow before king, nor should we bow before the emperors of the online economy,” (https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/big-tech-antitrust-hearing-full-transcript-july-29) said committee Chairman David Cicilline.

Wednesday’s hearing is the culmination of a congressional investigation for more than a year to determine whether these four predominant companies are abusing their power in, and influence over the online marketplace. It was also the most serious hearing of its kind since Bill Gates testified before Congress in 1998 about Microsoft.

The most anticipated testimony came from Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon, who was questioned for the first time in Washington. Bezos, one of the wealthiest people in the world, admitted that Amazon has been using data from third-party sellers. The others also did not deny similar allegations.

Democrats focused mainly on how these companies treat competition, while Republicans accused the companies of engaging in political censorship in unfairly treating conservative circles.

In their defense, all four tried to strike a patriotic tone, emphasizing that their companies were founded in America and serve Americans, and what is more, they are the epitome of the American dream of going from rags to riches.

Bezos pointed to the trust Americans have in Amazon as an American company, while Sundar Pichai stressed the companies’ contribution to the American economy.

“In fact, today we support 1.4 million small businesses supporting over $385 billion in their economic activity,”said the Alphabet, Inc. (Google) CEO. (https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/big-tech-antitrust-hearing-full-transcript-july-29

“A decade ago, the vast majority [of businesses] were American. Today, almost half are Chinese,” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said, trying to justify why the companies’ place in the market is important to Americans.