Representatives of big tech companies Facebook, Google, Amazon, and Apple will be questioned by the House Judiciary Committee’s antitrust subcommittee this Tuesday.
After several allegations and increasingly evident signs of antitrust, the hearing is now geared at scrutinizing the market power of the tech giants.
Initially launched in the second week of July, the House Judiciary Committee’s investigation was aimed to understand market power, impact on the news content and the spread of misinformation online.
It was revealed that the tech giants are heavily relying on several strong antitrust professionals such as Adam Cohen, who worked on improving the antitrust situation in Europe and Nate Sutton, a Department of Justice veteran.
While an Apple spokesperson will be questioned on the company’s webpage about the App Store’s principles and practices, a Google spokesperson referred to its CEO Sundar Pichai’s comments on the aspect. It was found that both Facebook and Amazon had declined to comment.
Longtime Google-rival and Chief Executive of Yelp, Jeremy Stoppelman was seen attending meetings in the Capitol Hill the previous week. Spotify, a long-time critic of Apple’s AppStore policies is known to be working with the Congress ahead of the hearing.
Sen. Marsha Blackburn who previously announced about leading a tech task force for the Senate Judiciary Committee has reportedly met Chris Hughes, Facebook’s co-founder who had called to break up the tech giant in the past.
Several congressional committees, competitors, critics, and members are uniting their efforts for scrutinizing big tech and hold it accountable for the various counts of antitrust violations. Apart from the House Judiciary Committee, the Federal Trade Commission, and the Department of Justice have also called for a probe into big tech for reviewing potential antitrust violations and to understand whether the current antitrust laws are adequate.
We will now have to wait and watch if the House Judiciary Committee, Department of Justice or the Federal Trade Commission will pursue any cases against the tech giants. Such cases, even if filed, take a long time to develop and reach a favorable verdict.
