⁍ Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon.com Inc’s Jeff Bezos, Google owner Alphabet Inc’s Sundar Pichai and Apple Inc’s Tim Cook all testified.
⁍ The hearing was the first time the four CEOs have appeared together before lawmakers.
⁍ Lawmakers descended into shouting at points, with a pandemic twist.
⁍ One lawmaker shouted: ‘Put your mask on!
– Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Sundar Pichai, and Tim Cook appeared before a House panel Wednesday to answer accusations of anti-competitive behavior from both Democrats and Republicans. Here’s a look at some of the key moments, per the AP, Reuters, the New York Times, and the Washington Post: ‘Stealing content’: Rep. David Cicilline, a Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, accused Google of stealing Yelp reviews and threatened to delist Yelp from search results if it did so. Pichai, Google’s CEO, said he would look into the allegation. “We conduct ourselves to the highest standards,” he added. ‘People didn’t think of [Yelp] competing with us in that space.’ ‘How many companies did Facebook end up copying?’: Rep. Pramila Jayapal asked Zuckerberg. “How many companies did Facebook end up copying?’ she asked. “Is it less than five? Less than 50?” “Congresswoman, I don’t know,” Zuckerberg said. ‘Big Tech is out to get conservatives’: Rep. Jim Jordan accused the companies of taking a long list of actions that he said showed they try to hamper conservatives from reaching their supporters. “Big Tech is out to get conservatives,” he said. “We support both campaigns. We approach our work in a nonpartisan fashion.”
Source: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-tech-congress/us-lawmakers-accuse-big-tech-of-crushing-rivals-to-boost-profits-idUSKCN24U1FI