The hearing will include hours of testimony, some of which will use many words to say very little. So, settle in and watch above or read on for some of the high points from the event.
Why is this happening?
Opening statements
Chairman Mr. Cicilline doesn’t hesitate to call out how each company stands to benefit from the global effects of COVID-19. He nicely sums up the complaints about these large companies and their ability to force out smaller players and guide innovation efforts. He compares the companies to small governments in and of themselves. The statement clearly tries to lay out high stakes. Ranking member Mr. Sensenbrenner introduces the idea that the current anti-competition laws may not be equipped to handle the sheer size of the tech companies. He’s the first to use the phrase “public square” which you should expect to hear a lot during this hearing. He also directly suggests that the companies may be “silencing conservative voices,” which will also likely come up a lot. Rep, Nadler cuts right to the main point and compares big tech platforms to infrastructure. We’re calling back to the early days of the U.S. during the development of the railroads. Mr. Jordan uses his statement to list examples of times he believes tech has tried to “silence conservatives.” Many examples come from Twitter, which isn’t at the hearing.
Testimony
Google’s Sundar Pichai has the best-looking webcam and office setup. You can read his prepared statement here. He mentions that there are 140 million students and teachers using G Suite during the pandemic. He injects some comments about his upbringing as well. Presumably they have all seen the comments about Zuck’s “robotic” demeanor during past hearings and are trying to avoid it. Google says it’s spending $26 billion in research and development every year. That’s a 10x growth in a decade. He mentions how Android doesn’t require licensing fees, which is clearly aimed at Apple. Apple’s Tim Cook’s prepared statement is available here. He starts with a tribute to the late John Lewis. Cook specifically names Huawei as one of its competitors along with LG and Samsung. He points out that Apple doesn’t have a dominating share in any segment in which is participates. He’s touting the benefits of a closed App Store knowing that it will be a frequent topic of questioning. “We want to get every app we can on the App Store.” he says it facilitated $138 billion in commerce last year alone. Facebook’s Zuckerberg’s statement is available here. We’ve heard Zuck make similar statements in the past If you’ve watched previous hearings. “In many areas, we’re behind our competitors.” He calls out the other platforms by name for their size. He also adds Tik Tok into the mix, which has been in the news for possible security issues regarding its Chinese leadership. He also specifically mentions how many Chinese companies have climbed up in the ranks of the world’s most successful companies.
Questioning
Mr. Cicilline starts off with an accusation toward Google from the investigation. He says entrepreneurs suffer when Google “steals content” from them to keep them within their own platform. He says the accusers don’t want to be named because they “fear retribution” from Google. Cicilline calls Google a “walled garden” that keeps users inside its own services. He says Google implemented a “multi-pronged attack.” He talks about the 2010 scandal regarding Google’s treatment of Yelp, which accused it of stealing restaurant reviews. He also cites a number claiming that more than 60 percent of searches that start on Google also end on Google. Mr. Sensenbrenner says he hopes the net will become a global debate on issues, which sounds just terrible. “I’m concerned the people who manage the net…are ending up using this as a political screen.” He asks a question about a perceived “censorship” issue that actually happened on Twitter. Mr. Nadler starts in on Facebook for its acquisition of Instagram. It’s one of the easiest examples in the anti-competition well and it seems like a good topic to talk about. Zuck says Facebook saw them as both a competitor and a complement. Nadler cites specific quotes and documents from Facebook illustrating how the company used its Instagram acquisition to prevent other startups from gaining marketshare. Zuck talks about how much Facebook did for Instagram’s success with development and promotion. Mr. Buck starts off with questions about why Google would drop out of a military project called JEDI, which didn’t work with Alphabet’s corporate policies. He’s tacitly accusing of doing work to benefit China. Pichai explains that Google works with the U.S. government and doesn’t provide any of its services in China. Last time Pichai was in front of Congress, he said that the controversial Chinese search engine project it had been exploring has been tabled. Mr. Jordan from Georgia starts off by asking Tim Cook about the App Store. Cook says it’s a “feature of the iPhone, much like the camera.” It’s an interesting way to view the App Store. “We have open and transparent rules,” Cook says, but that’s controversial, especially when he says it doesn’t favor some developers over others. Jordan asks what’s to stop apple from increasing its commission to 50 percent. Cook says there’s a competition for developers with Android, Windows, Xbox, or PlayStation. Mr. Gaetz is concerned about Google possibly working with China. Pichai explains that Google only has one installment in China working on open-source AI. Mr. Raskin asks about what Facebook is doing in regards to efforts to spur division among Americans. Zuck says Facebook has hired 30,000 people to work on safety and security and goes to the familiar well of “we built AI systems” in order to combat bad actors. Zuck says Facebook takes down “billions” of fake accounts per year. Mr. Steube describes various Google searches he’s done on his laptop and asks Google whether it has stopped censoring conservatives in light of this hearing. He goes on to say that his “supporters aren’t getting his campaign emails.” Ms. Demings makes the case that Google has gained enough market power that it doesn’t have to concern itself as much about protecting user data. She mentions the DoubleClick acquisition, which she calls a “bait and switch” to get user data. Mr. Jordan starts off exactly where he left off in the beginning. He asks Pichai if Google can vow not to help Joe Biden beat Donald Trump. Mr. Neguse makes a list of social networks with which Facebook used to compete. He brings up a 2012 graphic in which Facebook says it’s more than 90 percent of all social media in the market. He reads an email sent from Zuck in which he “jokes” about eventually being able to buy Google the way they buy competitive startups. Mr. Sensenbrenner uses his second question to actively defend big tech and suggest they may not need to be broken up because it won’t benefit the consumers at all. He’s bad mouthing Congress after telling everyone that he has been a member of Congress for decades. Ms. Jayapal goes back at Facebook, reading more messages between Facebook execs about buying or cloning competitors. She asks if he used the development of Facebook’s Camera app to “threaten” the CEO of Instagram. “Facebook is a case study, in my opinion, in monopoly power.” She’s taking a hard line against Facebook’s model. Mr. Raskin asks Bezos if its Fire TV platform gives it an unfair leverage against content companies that want to stream on it. He specifically wants to know when HBO will show up on Fire devices. “Are you converting power in one domain into another domain where it doesn’t belong?” He asks if the Echo devices sell for below cost. Bezos says the list price isn’t below cost, but the promotions will put it below cost. Mr. Gaetz wants to know if Google employees can manually blacklist media targets. He explicitly accuses Google as meddling with the election. Mr. Nadler accuses Google and Facebook of harming the music and journalism industries by using anti-competitive conduct to gain advertisement dollars. He asks Zuckerberg if he knew that Facebook was inflating video metrics in the mid-2010s that heavily influenced media outlets to pivot to video. Mr. Steube asks questions about how Facebook picks its third-party fact checkers, which Zuck has answered several times before during hearings like this. Ms. Dennings takes on Facebook’s policies regarding its platform in the past. It dates back to 2012. She points out a 2013 example of MessageMe, which was quickly growing on FB’s platform and got restricted. She changes her focus to Tim Cook. She asks about an incident in which Apple removed several apps parents were using to track kids’ movements. She claims Apple gave several apps preferential treatment despite using the same underlying technology. Mr. Neguse returns to the topic of the App Store. He asks if Apple’s own apps have to abide by the same rules as all the developers. He specifically mentions the Apple’s ban on submitting “copy cat” apps despite its history of making apps that mimic others’ functionality. Cook says, “We would never steal somebody’s IP.” He asks a similar question to Pichai—he asks him to pledge that Google with change the language in its API to prevent it from using proprietary info to develop competitive apps. Ms. McBath is the last to question them. She asks if the companies will commit to diversity efforts, especially in the hither levels of their organizations. She asks if Facebook is using cookies to collect private information and Zuck says “no.” She asks if he thinks Facebook would be successful if it had started with today’s regulations on cookies in place.
