US lawmakers toast huge tech giants at hearings launch | Technology

Big Tech will be on the hot seat this week as US lawmakers look into the growing power of these corporate monsters during two days of hearings.

Facebook will be under surveillance Tuesday morning when lawmakers of the Senate Banking Commission will question the leaders of the company about its cryptocurrency project, Libra. On Tuesday afternoon, representatives of Facebook, Google, Apple and Amazon will be confronted with questions about online monopolies at the House subcommittee on competition, antitrust and commercial law. Wednesday morning, it will be the turn of the House to question Facebook on its cryptocurrency project.

The launch of Facebook crypto faces potential hurdles

Facebook announced plans for Libra in June, detailing its ambitions to launch a digital currency in 2020 that would allow its billions of users to carry out financial transactions worldwide. Facebook says Libra will be managed by the Libra Association, an organization made up of more than 100 companies that have subscribed to the launch of the currency and are based in Switzerland. The company says that user payment data will be independent of existing Facebook advertising profiles and will not be sold.

These projects could potentially disrupt the global banking system and have prompted immediate concern by legislators and experts about privacy and anti-fraud measures. The US Security and Exchange Commission is currently examining whether Libra looks like an exchange-traded fund. If this is the case, the SEC will have to approve the Balance before it is launched. Even Donald Trump spoke out against the effort. "If Facebook and other companies want to become a bank, they have to look for a new bank charter and be subject to all banking regulations, like other banks, national and international," he said. he tweeted last week.

At this week's hearings, Facebook should argue that its new currency is primarily a payment tool, not an investment.

In statements published before the hearing, David Marcus, the former head of PayPal at the head of Facebook's cryptocurrency initiative, said the company would not launch Libra as long as It would not have "totally solved regulatory problems".

"We recognize the authority of financial regulators and support their oversight of this project," he said.

The company will also focus on the Libra Association, saying the currency will not be managed by Facebook, but by the collection of companies.

"The Libra Association argues that financial inclusion, regulatory harmony and consumer concerns are not competing goals, but are consistent with the Association's goals of providing a single global currency and a financial infrastructure that empowers billions of people, "said Dante Disparte, director of politics and communications for the Libra badociation.

Prior to the hearings, many cybercriminals gathered around Facebook, pointing out that congressional and Trump administration responses to Libra testified to greater resistance to blockchain technologies.

"Facebook is today's practical punch bag, and offers politicians a simple opportunity to improve their visibility," said Roneil Rumburg, CEO and co-founder of the blockchain-based Audius streaming service. "The crypto-community will probably end up being a collateral damage in its spat. Some of us may or may not agree with the Libra approach, but we should all be able to agree that their right to experiment and innovate is worthy of being defended. "

House relies on technological monopolies

In the Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law Subcommittee, technology giants will be confronted with increasingly skeptical lawmakers in the face of the incredible power of big tech companies in markets such as digital advertising (in the case of Facebook and Google); and e-commerce and cloud computing (for Amazon).

On Friday, David Cicilline, chairman of the antitrust subcommittee, said the Federal Trade Commission would impose a $ 5 billion fine on Facebook for violating privacy, calling the settlement "a five-month Christmas gift to the world." "advance" and warning consumers, the Congress must surely. "

Antitrust hearings are part of a bipartisan survey recently launched on online monopolies. The first hearing of the June survey focused on the effects of online platforms on the new sector. Tuesday's survey will focus on "innovation and entrepreneurship".

Big tech companies are likely to testify to "how great they are for small businesses," said Sarah Miller, badistant director of the Open Markets Institute, a progressive think tank that fights against monopolies. "But that's not true."

"We have allowed these companies to gain monopoly power and they are now killing innovation because of their control over the major arteries of commerce," Miller said. "There is no quick fix, but any solution must reach the fundamentally dangerous level of power that these companies have been able to acquire … It is not a bill that will neutralize the power of these platforms."

Still according to Miller, the Senate and House hearings on Facebook's cryptocurrency are a sign that his group's antitrust arguments are gaining ground among lawmakers.

"If, two years ago, Facebook had announced the creation of a cryptocurrency, I think people would have said," Oh, how innovative it is, "she said. "Now we go in. It's the power to really educate decision makers."