Antitrust Hearing Advances Case for Serious Reforms | Zuckerberg Emails Reveal Anti-Competitive Acquisition of Instagram

For Immediate Release
July 29, 2020
Contact: press@accountabletech.org

Today the House Judiciary Committee questioned four CEOs of the largest and most powerful tech companies in the world on antitrust. The hearing made a compelling case for increased accountability of these tech giants, as the CEOs of Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Apple were unable to sufficiently answer questions about their control of the marketplace or the spread of misinformation. Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY) and subcommittee chair David Cicilline (D-RI) also revealed emails from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg regarding Instagram, showing that Facebook continuously used its market power to copy or eliminate competition and pressure emerging companies to sell.

In response to today’s hearing, Executive Director of Accountable Tech Nicole Gill released the following statement:

“Big Tech companies serve as information and market gatekeepers, but they have consistently abused that status to maximize profits at the expense of the public good. As today’s hearing made clear, their monopoly-like power begets more anti-competitive behavior and removes the incentives to act responsibly. In the case of companies like Facebook and Google, it insulates them from pressure to stop profiting off of hate and disinformation. But that pressure is only growing, and they’d be wise to recognize that if they won’t implement changes to better serve society, harsher remedies will ultimately be imposed on them.”

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Last week Accountable Tech and GQR released new polling showing that Americans overwhelmingly agree that Big Tech companies have too much power and should be doing more to combat online hate and misinformation. Read the full poll here.

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