Four US ‘Big Tech’ CEOs To Face Anti-Trust Congressional Hearing

For small tech companies, being featured in Apple's iPhone app store is essential to getting customers. But Apple squeezes these companies hard, says David Hansen, chief technology officer for the project management company Basecamp. We were shaken down by Apple. Apple showed up with a demand that we had over 30 percent of our revenues and I've compared Apple's tactics to several times. Complaints about monopolistic practices prompted the House Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee to hold a virtual hearing with tech bosses, calling on Amazon's Jeff Bezos, Apple's Tim Cook, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg and Google's Sundar Pichai. It is apparent that the dominant platforms are increasingly using their gatekeeper power in abusive and coercive ways. The CEOs will be questioned by lawmakers who have carefully prepared for months. This hearing, you know, didn't just pop up out of nowhere. A lot of these members have been studying these corporations intimately for the better part of a year now and are so good, so going to come prepared with some very pointed questions. Among the issues likely to be probed are how Google uses its control over advertising on its platform to squelch competition, how Amazon tries to squeeze out rivals by placing its own products more prominently in its sprawling virtual marketplace, Apple's role as a gatekeeper for app developers imposing arbitrary conditions on companies trying to reach consumers through its smartphones, and how Facebook distributes false information and hate speech on its platform. What they have said very blatantly, very clearly that they intend to be accomplices for misleading the American people. Ultimately, the hearings could lead to antitrust proceedings with the companies potentially being broken up into multiple parts. That's really what this comes down to, an investigation into the kind of fundamental power of these behemoth corporations and what the government is going to do about that. The tech giants plan to argue that they face abundant competition and are therefore not monopolies. They have Republican allies in Congress. Big is not necessarily bad. Antitrust laws do not exist to punish success. A hearing that will be closely watched and may have wide-ranging consequences. Rob Reynolds, Al Jazeera, Los Angeles.