Tech goes back on Capitol grill
Once friend, now foe, four of the world’s biggest technology firms are due for a rough grilling come Monday before a House panel focusing on the quartet’s near total grip on their industries. The big four — Facebook, Google, Apple and Amazon — are expected to bring their CEOs in a virtual hearing and showdown with a House Judiciary panel that handles antitrust issues. It’s a setup bound to produce sparks and unlikely to stick to the legalisms of monopoly law. Censorship, phony information, privacy, China and more of tech’s dirty laundry will be waiting offstage.
Too much has happened in recent months to make this get together pleasant. The country’s love affair with Silicon Valley is on the rocks. Each company has weathered criticisms while piling up business and combined stock value that tops $4 trillion. Washington has stewed over the results and now lawmakers will have a chance to fire back.
Each company will have its time in the woodshed. For Facebook, it’s expected to claim that its stable of platforms, including Instagram and WhatsApp, aren’t all that dominant. Twitter and TikTok are rivals and others can easily pop up. But when lawmakers get the microphone, the company is sure to be raked for its sputtering pace on controlling trolls, racists and conspiracy mongers who want to manipulate elections. It could be a rerun of a multiday session two years ago featuring CEO Mark Zuckerberg squirming under Capitol Hill questioning.
Google leader Sundar Pichai may face more directed questioning about his firm’s stranglehold on marketing tied to its dominant search site. Along with Facebook, Google collects an ocean of personal data, another divisive topic.
Apple has its critics as well. App developers claim the company chokes off outside ideas and is overcontrolling. Apple leader Tim Cook has long contended it needs to police its app store to assure quality, but that also advantages its own offerings.
Amazon may be roasted for its python grip on ecommerce, but its founder Jeff Bezos has said recently that the online business it pioneered has lifted competitors along with itself during the coronavirus stayhome directives. The company’s also gone on a warehouse hiring binge while the country’s jobless rate creeps up.
The Democratdominated panel has focused on antitrust and technology for months. It’s a subset of the larger Judiciary Committee that drew up impeachment charges against President Trump, making it unafraid of taking on loaded issues.
The appearance by the top executives, who haven’t appeared together before under the congressional hot lamps, will be a summary session for both sides. Facebook may break ranks slightly by repeating earlier wishes for Washington’s help in devising content controls, but the three other companies have no wish for more regulation.
New legislation could emerge, ranging from a breakup of a coalescing sector in the business world to other measures that guard privacy and improve election safeguards. Another threat from Congress could be removing legal language that protects social networks from responsibility for the behavior of third parties that spout off.
By agreeing to show up, the tech moguls are signaling their awareness of major trouble. But the tech industry isn’t sold on a benign outcome. While acknowledging its flubs and failures, it’s not about to give in to lawmakers at the outset of a rough election season. The coming encounter should show just how far apart oncefawning politicians are from their erstwhile friends and campaign benefactors.