Mark, are you a big fat cat?
During Wednesday’s hearing with Big Tech CEOs about possible antitrust violations, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg faced business search and destroy tactics for his company.
Washington Rep Pramila Jayapal read several damning email exchanges between Zuckerberg, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, and other top brass who explicitly expressed the company’s strategy of neutralizing competition by copying products and intimidation of rivals to sell.
“Do you copy your competitors?” Jayapal asked.
“We have certainly adapted features that others have led, just as others have copied and adapted features that we have led,” said Zuckerberg.
If you recall, Facebook-owned Instagram cloned Snapchat’s “stories” feature. Snapchat users plummeted soon after.
Speaking of Instagram, Jayapal also wanted to know if Zuckerberg had ever planned to copy a competing product, and to have the potential of Facebook’s own version of a product on a competitor’s heads as an incentive to sell.
“Has Facebook ever threatened to clone another company’s products while trying to acquire that company?” Jayapal asked.
“Not that I remember,” replied Mark. To which Jayapal said: “I would like to remind you that you are under oath.”
Check out the entire spicy exchange above.
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