During a hearing on digital antitrust issues on Wednesday, lawmakers on the House judiciary committee accused four technology giants of being monopolies that have “wielded their power in disruptive, harmful ways.”
Four CEOs — Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Tim Cook of Apple, Sundar Pichai of Google and Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook — appeared before the antitrust subcommittee of the House judiciary as part of the hearing. Subcommittee Chairman Rep. David Cicilline has been leading a months-long investigation into potential anti-competitive practices at all four companies. Committee members have obtained more than 1.3 million documents from the companies and have conducted five earlier public hearings.
Cicilline said the power the four companies have threatens competition and U.S. democracy. Cicilline also accused Google of stealing content from smaller companies by keeping users on Google sites. Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner said he was less concerned with how big the tech companies are than he was with apparent efforts to suppress conservative viewpoints. And Rep. Jim Jordan also accused the companies of downplaying conservative voices. Jordan also accused Google of attempting to aide former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign in 2016.
You can view the hearing in it’s entirety on the House Judiciary’s YouTube page, by clicking the link: here
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