Congress will barbecue 4 of the most significant tech CEOs at a historical hearing

It’s fitting that Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Tim Cook and Sundar Pichai will affirm Wednesday over video chat for an extremely expected congressional hearing.   

Silicon Valley’s innovation has actually altered the world, permitting individuals around the world to remain linked even throughout an unmatched pandemic. But the success of Facebook, Amazon, Apple, and Google moms and dad business Alphabet — and the 4 males who lead those business — has actually caused another extraordinary phenomenon: the spectacular quantity of control Silicon Valley has more than what the world sees, checks out, purchases and does online.  

How much control? Facebook is the world’s biggest social media network, with a user base approximately equivalent to the world’s 2 most populated nations integrated. Amazon controls 38% of United States online sales — Walmart, its nearby rival, has simply shy of 6% — and has information on other merchants utilizing the huge platform. Apple’s App Store is an effective entrance for software application designers to discover an audience with the business’s huge iPhone and iPad client base. And Google processes about 90% of all web searches worldwide. Combined, the 4 business deserve practically $5 trillion.

The hearing, postponed by 2 days to accommodate a memorial for the late Rep. John Lewis, marks the very first time legislators will have the chance to barbecue the CEOs of those 4 effective business at the exact same time. Officially, the subject is antitrust, the conclusion of a more than yearlong examination into the marketplace supremacy of Big Tech by a House Judiciary subcommittee led by Rep. David Cicilline (envisioned above), a Democrat from Rhode Island. In that time, the subcommittee has actually collected more than 1.3 million files from the tech giants, rivals and antitrust enforcement firms for the examination. 

But political leaders are understood to go off-script, and the hearing is anticipated to end up being a free-for-all, discussing subjects as differed as election security, political predisposition and relations with China.

Government authorities have actually been battling with the power of tech business for years. In 1984, AT&T was broken into 8 different business. Microsoft, the tech market’s initial baddie, was implicated of having a monopoly on PC software application in the 1990s, a landmark case that simmered into a settlement in 2001. The European Union likewise required Microsoft to open its os to rivals and consistently fined it.  But an industrywide numeration that the hearing represents is uncharted area. 

The hearing is an uncommon public interrogation of Big Tech’s crucial leaders at a vital time. The United States governmental election looms, the nation is fighting with social turmoil over racial oppression and the world is gazing down a fatal contagion. All the while, Americans are utilizing tech’s services and gadgets to discover details online, purchase products, and download and stream home entertainment while they shelter in location.

“They all control dominant platforms,” said Hal Singer, a senior scholar at the George Washington Institute of Public Policy, referring to the companies. “This is a good opportunity to get them all together and see if any patterns emerge.”

Separate battles

Each of the four companies is facing its own antitrust battle. All of them are reportedly targets of probes by the Department of Justice or a coalition of state attorneys general. Google and Facebook have confirmed various investigations, while Amazon and Apple haven’t publicly acknowledged them. 

With Facebook, which was originally scheduled to report second-quarter earnings on Wednesday but moved them to Thursday, regulators are looking into the company’s acquisitions of competitors like Instagram and WhatsApp. For Amazon, Congress has largely focused on the company’s private-label business, which sells Amazon brands of clothing, food and consumer goods like batteries and diapers. Apple has seen scrutiny over the cut it takes from software developers on its app store. For Google, regulators are focused mainly on the search giant’s dominance in digital advertising. 

At Wednesday’s hearing, all those disparate threads will intersect like a very wonky and nerdy crossover episode. Republicans have also called for Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to join the hearing, in the wake of a massive security breach earlier this month. Dorsey isn’t on the witness list. 

Adding to the intrigue is the newbie status of Bezos. Zuckerberg, Pichai and Cook have all testified before. (Zuckerberg, the youngest of the bunch, has the most experience testifying on Capitol Hill. In 2018, he fielded questions during two sessions, for almost 10 hours over two days, after the Cambridge Analytica data scandal. He also testified last year about Facebook’s planned Libra cryptocurrency.) 

Despite his rising profile — and wealth — Bezos has never faced Congress. Last Monday, the fortune of the world’s richest person grew by $13 billion in one day alone, bringing his total net worth to almost $190 billion.  

Bezos may have an uncomfortable day. President Donald Trump has taken personal shots at the Amazon boss, apparently over coverage by The Washington Post, which Bezos owns separately from Amazon. It’s likely Republicans allied with the president will pick up the baton and run with it. But there are also legitimate questions to ask about Amazon’s size and business practices. 

A virtual affair

All high-profile congressional hearings are in part political theater, filled with pageantry and spectacle. When Zuckerberg testified before Congress two years ago, an activist group set up 100 cardboard cutouts of Facebook’s CEO on the lawn of the Capitol Building, imploring him to “Fix Fakebook.” Protestors dressed as bunnies and superheroes chanted slogans like “Zuckerberg, you’re absurd!” After he sat down for his first hearing, photographers snapped pictures of him for nearly a full minute before the proceedings could continue. 

On Wednesday, the circus won’t be following the young mogul. The event will be conducted virtually, an accommodation to House rules because of the coronavirus pandemic. That means the hearing will lack the drama that comes with in-person visits to DC. Cutting exchanges, like Rep. Katie Porter’s needling of Zuckerberg over his hairstyle last year, are unlikely to play out. Snappy timing is hard to perfect over Zoom.

Some observers have criticized the format of the forum. Having all four CEOs appear at once means they each get a fraction of the time in the hot seat. The attention would be more focused if each testified individually. 

The hearing may be more show than substance. The real developments will come later. A landmark case against Google is expected to be filed this summer. Facebook awaits the findings of several probes, including one by the Federal Trade Commission. So the hearing is unlikely to be a game-changer, even if it will give the CEOs an opportunity to defend their companies in public. 

People watching the hearing should lower their expectations, says David Balto, a former lawyer in the Justice Department’s antitrust division whose clients include tech companies. There’s only so much lawmakers can accomplish in these settings, he says, and Congress should focus on trying to get a public commitment from the companies to reform their competition practices. That would mean, for example, getting Zuckerberg to commit against big acquisitions that “consolidate” the industry, like its buyout of Instagram. 

“The hearing is tremendously significant,” Balto said. But “be ready for disappointment,” he adds, if you’re looking for big changes.

CNET’s Ben Fox Rubin, Queenie Wong and Ian Sherr contributed to this report.