The CEOs of four of the world’s largest and most influential technology companies testified virtually Wednesday before the House Judiciary Committee’s antitrust subcommittee, arguing that they are American success stories, not too-big-to-fail corporate behemoths that stifle competition. (Adweek)
Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Sundar Pichai of Google and Tim Cook of Apple answered for their companies’ practices before Congress as the House panel caps its yearlong investigation of market dominance in the industry. (HuffPost / AP)
Congressman David Cicilline, a Democrat on the congressional committee holding the hearing, said a year-long investigation by lawmakers had revealed patterns of abuse by the online platforms. “The dominant platforms have wielded their power in destructive, harmful ways in order to expand,” he said. (BBC News)
Additionally, committee chairman Jerrold Nadler on Wednesday accused Google and Facebook of being responsible for the demise of journalism in the U.S. Pichai, for his part, defended Google’s search algorithms, saying that the company doesn’t “take into account commercial relationships” when promoting news stories. Nadler’s time was up before Zuckerberg was able to respond. (New York Post)
Facebook’s $1 billion deal to buy Instagram in April 2012 became a focal point of the hearing. The committee disclosed emails from Zuckerberg revealing that he was concerned that the photo-sharing app would become a significant competitor. (Variety)
Republicans on the antitrust subcommittee were particularly eager to cross-examine the executives over their supposed censorship of conservative viewpoints. (THR / THR, Esq.)