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Four Big Tech CEOs Testified Before Congress. Did What They Said Matter?

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg speaks via video conference during the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law hearing on Online Platforms and Market Power on Capitol Hill.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg speaks via video conference during the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law hearing on Online Platforms and Market Power on Capitol Hill.

Big Tech CEOs testified before the House Judiciary antitrust subcommittee on Wednesday.  We’re in the middle of a pandemic, so the heads of Amazon, Facebook, Google, Apple answered questions via livestream.

Here’s what that looked like. We’ll say it: It wasn’t quite what we expected.

— rat king (@MikeIsaac) July 29, 2020

Committee lawmakers peppered the CEOs with questions. From Protocol’s recap of the Democratic strategy:

If it seemed like Democrats on the House Judiciary antitrust subcommittee were building a methodical antitrust case against the biggest tech companies Monday, that’s because they were.

Lined up one after the other, transcripts of the Democrats’ exchanges with Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Sundar Pichai and Tim Cook would read like a detailed indictment of the companies they lead — complete with excerpts from damning documents and sometimes dissembling responses from the CEOs.

The hearing, chaired by Rhode Island Democrat David Cicilline, was part of a larger investigation by the House subcommittee. A report is expected in about a month detailing their work.

Could Democrats have a solid antitrust case against these powerful companies?  And can anyone still check the power of Big Tech?

Copyright 2020 WAMU 88.5

Charla Freeland