Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, stepped into the heads of some of the country’s largest tech companies on Wednesday, criticizing the leaders of Google, Facebook and other tech giants as “to get conservatives.”
Speaking during a remote meeting of the House Judiciary subcommittee on antitrust laws, Jordan recited a list of cases in which major tech and social media companies censored or removed posts from conservative legislators or thinkers before voicing their concerns about the role of technology in the upcoming November elections.
“I’m going to get straight to the point,” said Jordan. “Great technology looks for conservatives … That is a fact.”
Jordan focused much of his anger on Twittter, whose leader was not present at the hearing, after the company “banned the shadow” of his account in 2018. The company told Jordan that it was a bug in its algorithm that had blocked it.
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“If I had a nickel for every time I heard it was just a technical problem, it wouldn’t be as rich as our witnesses, but it would be fine,” Jordan said.
Jordan’s comments, which came during the opening remarks, marked the beginning of the discussion that the four Big Tech CEOs, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Sundar Pichai of Google, and Tim Cook of Apple, took during the audience of Democratic and Republican lawmakers. .
The four technology CEOs control corporations with gold marks, millions or even billions of customers, and a higher combined value than the entire German economy. One of them, Bezos, is the richest individual in the world; Zuckerberg is the fourth billionaire.
Critics question whether companies stifle competition and innovation, raise prices for consumers, and pose a danger to society.
In its bipartisan investigation, the judicial subcommittee collected testimonies from mid-level executives of the four companies, competitors and legal experts, and examined more than a million internal documents from the companies. A key question: whether existing competition policies and centuries-old antitrust laws are adequate to monitor tech giants, or whether new legislation and funding is needed for enforcement.
The chair of the subcommittee, Representative David Cicilline, DR.I., has called the four companies monopolies, although he says that separating them should be a last resort. While forced breakouts may seem unlikely, Big Tech’s extensive scrutiny points to possible new restrictions on its power.
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“Simply put, they have too much power,” Cicilline said in the opening remarks on Wednesday, as she presented data pointing to the power of the four technology companies as essential cogs in commerce and communications.
He also said that in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, “these giants benefit” and become even more powerful as millions change their jobs and online commerce more.
Companies face legal and political offenses on multiple fronts, from Congress, the Trump administration, federal and state regulators, and European vigilantes. The Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission have been investigating the practices of the four companies.
Associated Press contributed to this report.
