Tag Archives: Big Tech

Big Tech to tangle with Washington lawmakers in antitrust showdown

By Nandita Bose and Diane Bartz

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The CEOs of four of America’s largest tech firms will testify before the U.S. Congress on Wednesday in a hearing that promises a healthy dose of political theater, while also offering a window into the thinking of lawmakers trying to rein in Big Tech.

Facebook Inc’s <FB.O> Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon.com Inc’s <AMZN.O> Jeff Bezos, Alphabet Inc <GOOGL.O>-owned Google’s Sundar Pichai and Apple Inc’s <APPL.O> Tim Cook – who together represent about $5 trillion of the U.S. economy – are set to speak before the House Judiciary Committee’s antitrust panel.

Facebook’s and Apple’s chief executives have indicated they plan to use the specter of competition from China to push back against lawmakers seeking to rein them in.

Subcommittee Chairman David Cicilline has been looking into allegations by critics that the companies have hurt competitors and consumers with their business practices and seemingly insatiable appetite for data.

The CEOs plan to defend themselves https://reut.rs/2P4lpYN by saying they themselves face competition and by pushing back against claims they are dominant, which has led to fears the hearing will bring up little new information to hold the companies accountable in the long term. https://reut.rs/2P4lpYN

In his opening remarks, Zuckerberg will tell lawmakers that China is building its “own version of the internet focused on very different ideas, and they are exporting their vision to other countries.”

Apple’s Cook will point out that the “fiercely competitive” smartphone market includes China’s Huawei Technologies Co Ltd [HWT.UL], which has been a focus of considerable U.S. national security concern.

The hearing marks the first time the four CEOs have appeared together before lawmakers, and will also be the first-ever appearance of Bezos before Congress.

“The hearing is less about substance and is designed to bring attention to Congressman Cicilline and the work the subcommittee has been doing for the past year,” said Jesse Blumenthal, who leads technology and innovation at Stand Together, a group that sides with tech companies that have come under fire from lawmakers and regulators in Washington.

The hearing will also test U.S. lawmakers’ ability to ask sharp, pointed questions that reflect an understanding of how Big Tech operates. Previous high-profile hearings involving tech companies have exposed the somewhat limited grasp of Washington politicians of how the internet and technology work.

It will also offer lawmakers from both parties a chance to bring up the topic of content censorship – an increasingly sore point for Republican lawmakers, who have repeatedly complained of anti-conservative bias at Big Tech companies.

A detailed report with antitrust allegations against the four tech platforms and recommendations on how to tame their market power could be released by late summer or early fall by the committee, which has separately amassed 1.3 million documents from the companies, senior committee aides said.

(Reporting by Nandita Bose and Diane Bartz in Washington; Editing by Chris Sanders and Matthew Lewis)

U.S. senator introduces legislation to curb Big Tech’s ad business

By Nandita Bose

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Republican Senator Josh Hawley on Tuesday introduced legislation that would penalize large tech companies that sell or show targeted advertisements by threatening a legal immunity enjoyed by the industry – the latest onslaught on Big Tech’s business practices.

The bill, titled “Behavioral Advertising Decisions Are Downgrading Services (Bad Ads) Act,” aims to crack down on invasive data gathering by large technology companies such as Facebook and Alphabet’s Google that target users based on their behavioral insights.

It does so by threatening Section 230 – part of the Communications Decency Act — that shields online businesses from lawsuits over content posted by users. The legal shield has recently come under scrutiny from both Democrat and Republican lawmakers concerned about online content moderation decisions by technology companies.

On Tuesday, Democratic Senator Brian Schatz and No. 2 Senate Republican John Thune will hold a hearing to examine the role of Section 230. The senators recently introduced legislation to reform the federal law.

In May, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that seeks new regulatory oversight of tech firms’ content moderation decisions, and he backed legislation to scrap or weaken Section 230 in an attempt to regulate social media platforms.

“Big Tech’s manipulative advertising regime comes with a massive hidden price tag for consumers while providing almost no return to anyone but themselves,” said Hawley, an outspoken critic of tech companies and a prominent Trump ally. “From privacy violations to harming children to suppression of speech, the ramifications are very real.”

His recent legislation to ban federal employees from using Chinese social media app TikTok on their government-issued phones was passed unanimously by the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and will be taken up by the U.S. Senate for a vote.

Facebook and Google did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

(Reporting by Nandita Bose in Washington; Editing by Leslie Adler)