'Too Much Power': Key Moments As Tech CEOs Face Historic US Hearing

Whether it's through self-preferencing, predatory pricing, or requiring users to buy additional products, the dominant platforms have wielded their power in destructive, harmful ways in order to expand. Simply put, they have too much power. Mr. Pichai, do you know how Google responded when Yelp asked you to stop stealing their reviews? Well, I'll tell you, our investigation shows that Google's response was to threaten to delist Yelp entirely. Congressman, you know, when I run the company, I'm really focused on giving users what they want. We conduct ourselves to the highest standard. My question is, is why is this only happening to Republicans? In Gmail, we are focused on what users want. When users have indicated they want us to organize their personal emails, emails they receive from friends and family separately. And so all we have done is we have a tabbed organization and, you know, we, the primary tab has emails from friends and family and the secondary tab has other notifications and so on. It was reported that Donald Trump Jr. got taken down for a period of time because he put something up, the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine. Stating that there is a proven cure for COVID when there is in fact none might encourage someone to go take something that could have some adverse effects. So we do take that down. But wouldn't that be up to somebody else, you know, to say, okay, what somebody posted on this really isn't true. And here's what the facts are. We do not want to become the arbiters of truth. I think that that would be a bad position for us to be in and not, not what we should be doing. Apple is the sole decision maker as to whether an app is made available to app users through Apple's app store. Isn't that correct? Sir, we treat every developer the same. We have open and transparent rules. It's a rigorous process because we care so deeply about privacy and security and quality. We do look at every app before it goes on. But those apps, those rules apply evenly to everyone. One seller told us that, and I quote, Amazon continues to be the only show in town. No matter how angry sellers get, they have nowhere else to go. So are you saying that these people aren't being truthful when they say that Amazon is the only game in town? Yeah, Congresswoman, with great respect, I do disagree with that. I believe that there are a lot of options. If Amazon didn't have monopoly power over these sellers, do you think they would choose to stay in a relationship that is characterized by bullying, fear, and panic? With all respect, Congresswoman, I do not accept the premise of your question. That is not how we operate the business.