WASHINGTON – Of all the tech tycoons who were brought before Congress on Wednesday to defend their business practices, perhaps the most anticipated appearance was that of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.
But as lawmakers raided the heads of Google, Apple, and Facebook about how patriotic they felt and whether they had stolen restaurant reviews from smaller websites, the world’s richest man was ignored for the first two hours.
Appearing through the video link, as is now customary in the midst of the pandemic, Bezos could be seen indifferently eating and drinking what appeared to be a cup of coffee from his small screen on Zoom’s call.
Political pundits who saw the antitrust hearing complained that lawmakers had not asked the Amazon founder a single question and it was not until about two hours that representative Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) Began investigating the man from $ 180 billion.
“Jeff Bezos, sitting there doing nothing, only made about $ 300 million,” Farhad Manjoo of The New York Times tweeted.
“Jeff Bezos will probably receive a Prime installment in the time it takes reps to ask him a question,” joked Lauren Goode of WIRED.
There was inevitable speculation as to why members of Congress were more focused on Mark Zuckerberg on Facebook or Sundar Pichai on Google than Bezos, who now owns a $ 23 million DC mansion after buying the Washington Post in 2013.
“Everyone wants the coolest party invitations in DC (low bar) hosted by the world’s richest man amidst the mother of all midlife crises,” suggested New York University marketing professor Scott Galloway.
“Either Bezos is taking a nap or Amazon did a very good job pressing ahead of this with his DC army,” added Bloomberg’s Emily Chang.
But the 56-year-old tech mogul finally stood out when Jayapal started asking him if Amazon used vendor data on its website to launch competing products.
Apple’s Bezos, Zuckerberg, Pichai and Tim Cook faced a dispute in Congress over accusations that their companies had become too powerful and engaged in behavior designed to paralyze their competitors.
At one point, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) accused tech giants of also trying to silence conservative views, reciting a number of examples, including restricting tweets from the president.
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