Big Tech of crushing rivals to boost profits
WASHINGTON: Google and Facebook took particularly sharp jabs for alleged abuse of their market power from Democrats and Republicans in a much-anticipated congressional hearing that put four of America’s most prominent tech CEOS in the hot seat.
The chairman of the US House of Representatives antitrust panel holding the hearing said afterwards that the four CEOS had acknowledged concerning behavior.
“What we heard from witnesses at the hearing confirmed the evidence that we have collected over the last year,” Representative David Cicilline, a Democrat, said.
Facebook Inc’s Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon.com Inc’s Jeff Bezos, Google owner Alphabet Inc’s Sundar Pichai and Apple Inc’s Tim Cook — whose companies have a combined market value of about $5 trillion — parried a range of accusations that they crippled smaller rivals in their quest for market share.
The videoconference hearing was the first time the four CEOS have appeared together before lawmakers.
Though it was Bezos’ first congressional testimony, he appeared the least fazed. Cook drew fewer barbed questions than Bezos and handled them efficiently. Zuckerberg suffered the most damage, stumbling at times when confronted with internal emails.
Pichai, CEO of both Alphabet and Google, took the most heat from conservatives on the panel and looked the worse for it, as he repeatedly told lawmakers he would be happy to look into various situations and get back to them.
The Big Tech hearing triggered scorn from viewers over its own tech issues. Bezos escaped questioning for about an hour in what may have been a tech issue and was caught on screen reaching for what appeared to be a snack.
Poor audio, flat-screen televisions switching off, and chief executives appearing together as thumbnails on a large screen led to mockery of the virtual set-up on Twitter.
Lawmakers descended into shouting at each other at points, with a pandemic twist. One yelled: “Put your mask on!”
Cicilline set the tone for the hearing when he began by accusing Google of theft. “Why does Google steal content from honest businesses?” he asked. He alleged Google stole reviews from Yelp Inc and threatened to delist Yelp from search results if it objected.
Pichai responded mildly that he would want to know the specifics of the accusation. “We conduct ourselves to the highest standards,” he added, disagreeing with the characterisation.
Facebook’s Zuckerberg took a series of questions about the company’s purchase of Instagram in 2012 and whether it was acquired because it was a threat, as he dubbed it in an email obtained by the committee.
Zuckerberg responded that Instagram at the time was a tiny photo-sharing app rather than a socialmedia phenomenon.
In one of the more notable exchanges, Representative Pramila Jayapal, a Democrat, pushed Zuckerberg on whether Facebook had ever copied its competitors. “We’ve certainly adapted features that others have led in,” he said.
“How many companies did Facebook end up copying?” she asked. “Is it less than five? Less than 50?”
“Congresswoman, I don’t know,” Zuckerberg said.
— Reuters