The calls to break Big Tech are not going to go away. In any case, they can be increasingly serious.
That was the bottom line for some antitrust attorneys and other tech industry analysts who saw members of Congress spend five and a half hours Wednesday questioning top tech CEOs about monopoly power on the Internet.
It was also the conclusion of Representative David Cicilline, DR.I., who chaired the hearing as chair of the House of Representatives Business, Commercial and Antitrust Subcommittee, and who became the main antagonist of Silicon Valley.
“This audience has made one fact clear to me: these companies, as they exist today, have monopoly power. Some need to be divided. Everyone should be properly regulated and accountable, “he said when the hearing ended Wednesday night.
Four Big Tech CEOs appeared together in the virtual audience to testify: Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Apple’s Tim Cook, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, and Google’s Sundar Pichai.
Together, the executives represented a historic concentration of corporate power in a congressional proceeding, and experts said it was a sight to see lawmakers bombard some of the world’s most powerful men with one-off questions about their business practices.
“It was refreshing to see lawmakers come face to face with the tech sector titans.”
“It was refreshing to see lawmakers come face to face with tech sector titans,” said Gene Kimmelman, a former Justice Department antitrust official who is now senior adviser to advocacy group Public Knowledge.
Sometimes the questioning nearly derailed, as some Republican members of the subcommittee tried to shift the audience to other topics, such as online speech rules, but even some Republicans raised questions about whether companies have fairly dealt with competitors.
Democrats also appeared to have coordinated before the hearing, dividing lines of questions among themselves so as not to duplicate efforts or waste limited minutes.
Possible new laws
But beyond the theatrical, the audience could end up having real consequences for the four companies. Critics were able to sharpen their case against the tech industry just like the Justice Department and several states are preparing to start antitrust lawsuits.
The audience also underscored a new level of seriousness among Democrats about tackling the power of the tech industry, months before the Nov. 3 general election, when they will have a chance to take unified control of the federal government and possibly attempt a rewriting of the centuries-old antitrust laws
Cicilline has already been working with Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, another harsh criticism of big tech companies, on a bill that would radically shake up the antitrust law. They would have a chance to move forward if Democrats sweep away the elections.
One idea is for bigger companies to break up, but critics have also examined controlling them through other methods.
“The audience gained momentum around ‘regulation,'” said Diana Moss, president of the American Antimonopoly Institute. “It is not ruled out that there may be bipartisan support for a new digital technology regulatory law,” she said, in summary, a new law to establish a framework to guarantee non-discriminatory access to platforms, among other things.
Sarah Miller, executive director of the United States Economic Liberties Project, an advocacy group that opposes monopolization, said the audience created momentum that will carry over to other hearings and legislation.
“It has probably been decades since a committee in Congress has brought a deeply researched and aggressive approach to major corporate players,” he said. “I really haven’t seen anything like that in 15 years in politics.”
Focus on the data
Several moments stood out from the marathon audience, according to outside experts.
In one, Rep. Val Demings, a Florida Democrat, pressured Google’s Pichai on a 2016 decision to combine data from the company’s DoubleClick advertising business with other data held by Google, a decision she says reversed a promise. above not to mix the information.
“Today we make it very easy for users to be in control of their data,” Pichai replied.
Demings interrupted him and said: “I am concerned that Google’s bait and switching with DoubleClick is part of a larger pattern in which Google buys companies for the purpose of monitoring Americans, and because of Google’s dominance, users they have no choice but to surrender. “
Rep Kelly Armstrong, RN.D., also asked Pichai about the ad data, saying that YouTube’s 2015 decision to change the way it sells the ads “resulted in smaller competitors being unable to participate. ” Pichai replied that there was still a robust set of options on the market.
Several lawmakers questioned Bezos about Amazon’s use of data on products sold by third parties on its website. Bezos said Amazon was investigating a report by The Wall Street Journal this year that Amazon employees had used that data to develop competing products, despite a company policy against it.
But Cicilline said that was not enough. “Amazon’s dual role as a competitive seller on that platform is fundamentally anti-competitive, and Congress must take action,” he said.
Facebook and Apple were also asked about the use of data they collect in one context and then use to inform business decisions in other contexts. Experts said it was no coincidence that lawmakers kept such a consistent focus. Tech companies have huge amounts of data, and while their practices may be allowed under current law, that may be a focus for future legislation.
“That’s the big general theme here: Big Tech platforms have the opportunity and the incentive to leverage the data they can develop to undermine the smallest players in the market,” said Kimmelman.
Not everyone thinks the time is right to consider antitrust legislation, especially before the Justice Department and other authorities finish their ongoing investigations.
“It is difficult to see Congress change antitrust laws until those investigations are conducted and we get some guidance from antitrust agencies and the courts,” said Asheesh Agarwal, deputy general counsel for advocacy group TechFreedom.
But part of what tech companies were asked about on Wednesday raised questions under the existing antitrust law, such as whether government compliance officers should revisit their previous Facebook approvals by buying Instagram and Amazon by buying Diapers.com.
The tone of the questions put to CEOs indicated that lawmakers were not intimidated by the idea of bursting confidence after years of rarely discussing it.
“There was no ‘thanks for being here, they are amazing innovators and we don’t want to bother you,'” Miller said. “This was asking them very specific and detailed questions about their market power and how they are harnessing that to harm other companies and consumers.”
