By
Chimamanda U. Martha
April 12th, 2024
After the antitrust hearing was postponed to pay respect to the late Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga, the four U.S. big tech CEOs are expected to be grilled by Congress today.
On Wednesday, July 29, the four largest U.S. tech companies by market capitalization will face Congress regarding the antitrust issues. The four CEOs that will be grilled by Congress are Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook), Sundar Pichai (Google), Tim Cook (Apple) and Jeff Bezos (Amazon).
It will be the first time the four CEOs will be put together on a stage by the regulators for Congress grilling. Whether this is a great idea, there stands conflict of interest from both parties as the U.S. elections approach amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Some of the four like Bezos has never testified before either house in the past. It will be a great opportunity to showcase their skills and at the same time get to know their future relationship with the government.
With the companies combined controlling over $5 trillion, their action gets to attract the regulators in many ways. Especially for Facebook that has been in loggerheads with the house over its ad system management.
The matter beforehand is not as easy as other hearings made before. This is because there are issues with a lot of weight in either parties’ argument.
Their role in the market will be scrutinized if it’s healthy for the general consumers and measures needed to be taken. With the United States in fierce competition with China over global tech and finance control, conflict of interest will arise.
What to Expect from the Congress Antitrust Hearing
It will be expected that the four CEOs will argue on helping the U.S. not lag behind China in the global touch. On the other hand, questions of their huge market dominance in regards to the competition will largely dominate the hearing.
Mark Zuckerberg has been cited saying that Facebook had become successful “the American way” – providing products that people find valuable after starting with nothing.
“Our story would not have been possible without U.S. laws that encourage competition and innovation,” he explained.
On the other hand, according to Bezos, his company has succeeded due to their urge to deliver the best and customer obsession.
“At Amazon, customer obsession has made us what we are, and allowed us to do ever greater things,” he said. “I know what Amazon could do when we were 10 people. I know what we could do when we were 1,000 people, and when we were 10,000 people. And I know what we can do today when we’re nearly a million,” added he.
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