Big Tech Leaders Must Go to Capitol Hill Next Week for Antitrust Hearing

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Leaders Amazon.com, Apple, Facebook and Alphabet will testify before a congressional committee of the House of Representatives during a hearing to discuss the enormous market power of online platforms.

In a statement Tuesday, the antitrust subcommittee of the Judiciary Committee of the House said that the witnesses would include: Adam Cohen, director of economic policy at Google; Nate Sutton, Assistant General Counsel for Regulatory Affairs at Amazon; Facebook's Matt Perault, Head of Global Policy Development and Apple's Vice President of Corporate Law, Kyle Andeer.

The hearing will take place on Tuesday, July 16, the information note said.

Apple and Google have not responded to a request for comment. Facebook has no immediate comment. Amazon spokeswoman Jodi Seth said she would testify but did not share the details.

Meanwhile, a subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee said in a notice on Tuesday that it had also scheduled a hearing for July 16. We did not know immediately who would be present.

The hearings take place as the House Judiciary Committee investigates competition in digital markets as part of an investigation announced last month. Republicans and Democrats are worried about the power of many of the world's most valuable societies.

The executive is currently reviewing Google and Apple, while the FTC is investigating Facebook and Amazon.

The audience also comes at a time when Republicans and Democrats have expressed their frustration at the big tech giants, but for different reasons.

Conservatives, including US President Donald Trump, have complained that social media companies are trying to shrink their voices online.

At the same time, progressive countries such as presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren have called on Amazon, Google and Facebook to sell the companies they previously bought to solve competition concerns.

In addition, Facebook is expected to pay a $ 5 billion fine for its work with consulting firm Cambridge Analytica, which has obtained data from millions of Facebook users without their permission. Cambridge was hired by President Donald Trump for his election campaign in the United States in 2016.

Social Media and Technology Leaders have been called to testify before legislators at high level hearings on various topics over the last two years, including on foreign influence operations on their platforms. .