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Big Tech CEOs grilled by Congress: Key moments from the historic antitrust meeting:
For five hours on Wednesday, the four Big Tech CEOs of the world's most powerful companies faced a grilling from US lawmakers in Washington, in an unprecedented hearing over alleged anti-competitive practices at their companies.
The hearing was the first time that Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Tim Cook of Apple, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook and Sundar Pichai of Google's parent Alphabet appeared together before Congress.
The Big Tech CEOs, appearing via video link, all faced moments in the spotlight from the House Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee, with Pichai and Zuckerberg receiving the most attention. It was sixth and final hearing into competition in the digital market by the committee, and a culmination of more than 1.3 million documents and hundreds of hours of interviews and testimonies.
There are long-standing concerns that the four companies, worth a combined $4.85tn, have become too dominant for rivals to compete on the same level.
Antitrust regulators fear that a lack of competition will lead to higher prices for consumers. However, when digital platforms offer services for free – as Facebook and Google do – it is difficult for lawmakers to prove that consumers are worse off.
Another charge is that a lack of competition stifles innovation, which in theory could lead to subpar products and services for consumers. But given the four tech giants are known for being at the cutting edge of innovation, this is again difficult to prove.
As such, Congress is considering new antitrust laws that are appropriate for the digital age, which could prevent so much power being concentrated in so few companies.
Here are some of the key topics the Big Tech CEOs were grilled on.
Here's a couple YouTube streams of the hearing from Reuters (6½h) & C-SPAN3 (5½hr).
(Score: 0, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 31 2020, @01:44PM (2 children)
You keep quoting the wrong book. We are not heading to 1984. Ok, maybe the Trumpsters like to use 1984 revisionist history as a guide, but it doesn't apply to majority. What you are looking for is Fahrenheit 451
https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/twice-montags-being-run-referred-game-him-win-how-425694 [enotes.com]
It is in Fahrenheit 451 where we have summaries of summaries, where everything is only Good or Bad with nothing in between, where people burn books not because of some overbearing force but their own attention span being so short. A book takes too long to read, burn it! Facebook useless endless scroll of crap, Twitters trends and general data overload is exactly what Fahrenheit 451 talks about.
1984, on the contrary, is about totalitarian governments that rewrite history. Like Trump's idol in North Korea or, to a lesser extent, the current Chinese President for Life. But this future has nothing to do with the click-baits and shit-scrolls - that is the future in Fahrenheit 451. That's the future tech is creating here.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Friday July 31 2020, @03:55PM (1 child)
Not arguing, but, let me explain how I see 1984 as relevant.
Some of us, at least, have witnessed the internet being "sanitized". Best example I have, albeit with no "proof", is the New American Century. When Bush ran for president, I had almost zero idea what New American Century was. I searched, and found a web page put up by NAC, explaining who and what they were. I instantly hated the idea, because they spelled out their ultimate goal. That goal was, that every man, woman, and child on earth should serve the good of Wall Street. If you didn't contribute to the profits of Wall Street, at least indirectly, then NAC had no use for you.
Soon after Bush was elected, and the term Neocon became a household word, that site was changed, to be less blatant about their goals. At least twice since, it's been sanitized further.
To be clear, I hate neoconservatism as much or more than I hate the progressive goals. But, my reasons for hating them have been cleansed from the internet.
That is very 1984-ish, I think.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 31 2020, @06:45PM
Everybody stand back! Runaway is thinking, again!!! I really hope no one gets hurt this time.