(UnitedVoice.com) – On Wednesday, the heads of the world’s largest tech companies met with members of Congress during a brutal six-hour hearing.
A House Judiciary subcommittee met with the leaders of Apple, Amazon, Facebook, and Google over antitrust issues. Twitter was conspicuously absent.
It was an unordinary moment of bipartisanship by lawmakers. They repeatedly expressed grave concerns about how the companies dominate the markets. However, what stole the show were Conservatives’ concerns regarding censorship of Conservative voices.
Google took the biggest beating over the size of its ad business, privacy policies, and its hostility towards the US military.
There were questions about why the tech giant was stealing content from publishers and other websites, and its growing relationship with China. Regarding the silencing of Conservative voices, Google’s CEO, Sundar Pichai, sidestepped the issue repeatedly.
At one point, he said YouTube has “more Conservative voices than ever before.” Google owns YouTube.
Of the five companies, Google bears the highest risk of antitrust action. The Department of Justice (DOJ) is investigating the tech giant over its advertising business.
Google accounts for 90% of all online searches in the United States, while its ad business accounts for nearly all of the company’s $160 billion in annual sales.
In addition, its mobile operating system, Android, is the most popular mobile software in the world. The DOJ is expected to file an antitrust lawsuit this summer against Google.
The subcommittee has collected 1.3 million documents on the five big tech companies. Later this year, it’s expected to release its report and recommendations.
The DOJ, Federal Trade Commission, and states attorneys generals will use that information in their ongoing investigations into how they use their massive financial resources to stifle competitors and increase market share.
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