Tech hearing: Bezos, Zuckerberg, Cook and Pichai grilled by congress as Facebook CEO defends Twitter over Trump Jr ban

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Mark Zuckerberg defends Twitter's decision to suspend Donald Trump Jr account

The four biggest Silicon Valley tech CEOs were grilled by Congress for more than five hours as both Democrats and Republicans accused them of using their monopolies to crush market competitors and censor ideological opponents.

Google's Sundai Pichai, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, Apple's Time Cook and Amazon's Jeff Bezos faced both pointed accusations and at times confused questioning from Representatives wading into thickets of privacy policies, advertising platforms and data algorithms.

Zuckerberg at one point found himself in the unlikely position of defending Twitter's decision to suspend Donald Trump's Jr's account after his company was confused for that of Jack Dorsey, who was not in attendance.

Bezos, meanwhile, was unable to deny an assertion that Amazon uses third-party seller data to advantage itself, a potential antitrust concern for the e-commerce company, but committed to sharing results of its internal investigation.

Cook defended Apple for removing competitors from the App Store even as customers were directed to Apple's own products as a replacement.

Pichai faced some of the toughest questions over Google's advertising practices, with the company accused of using "privacy" as a shield to withhold user data from competitors that it used itself to claim an advantage.

While Representatives across both political spectrums shared in their level of concerns at the size of the tech companies, Democrats tended to focus on anticompetitive conduct while Republicans leaned toward political censorship.

Zuckerberg was accused of lying to Congress after claiming he wasn't aware of anyone being fired for their political beliefs, while Pichai dodged questions about a 2016 video showing anti-Trump bias among senior leadership.

All of the CEO's, however, agreed that the emergence of cancel culture was a threat to democracy as the nuance destruction machine of social media empowered mobs in the "digital Thunderdome".

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[29 July 2020 18:53 · Andrew Buncombe]

Next up is Mark Zuckerberg, who claims - somehow - that Facebook is not a dominant force in the industry. Also raises threat of China

[29 July 2020 18:58 · Andrew Buncombe]

David Cicilline, the chair of the House Judiciary Committee’s antitrust panel, asks Google's Pichai "why it steals content from honest businesses"

[29 July 2020 19:02 · Andrew Buncombe]

Here's what a streamed tech boss looks like (Getty)

[29 July 2020 19:07 · Andrew Buncombe]

Now Zuckerberg is being questioned by Sensenbrenner, over Jim Jordan's claim that conservatives are being censored. Was it right to suspend Donald Trump Jr after he posted information about hydroxychloroquine. Zuckerberg points out this was Twitter, not FB, but finds himself defending move to block information that could harm.

[29 July 2020 19:11 · Andrew Buncombe]

Or as this person put it: 

[29 July 2020 19:24 · Andrew Buncombe]

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/mark-zuckerberg-hearing-donald-trump-jr-tweet-covid-hydroxychloroquine-a9644741.html

[29 July 2020 20:32 · Andrew Buncombe]

Bezos was unable to deny an assertion that Amazon uses third-party seller data to advantage itself, a potential antitrust concern for the e-commerce company. CNN said congresswoman Pramila Jayapal cited an anonymous Amazon employee’s testimony that there is a rule against using such data, but that it is not enforced, describing the situation as a “candy shop”.

Bezos acknowledged there was a policy that prohibited the use of third-party seller data to support Amazon’s own private-label business. But, he said: “I can’t guarantee you that policy has never been violated.” Ms Jayapal, replied: “I’ll take that as you’re not denying it."

[29 July 2020 21:33 · Justin Vallejo]

The hearing has taken a short recess and will resume momentarily.

[29 July 2020 21:52 · Justin Vallejo]

And we're back.

Bezos says Amazon is conducting an internal investigation in the use of third-party data, and committed to informing the committee the outcome of that investigation.

"We're basically trying to understand some of the anecdotes that we saw in that Wall Street Journal article," he said.

[29 July 2020 22:01 · Justin Vallejo]

Zuckerberg confirms Facebook previously had policies to restrict competitors in response to an email exchange between company product managers discussing restricting Pinterest but not Netflix.

"We used to have a policy that restricted competitors from using our platform and Pinterest is a social competitor with us, it's one of the many competitors that allows people to share things with their communities," Zuckerberg he said.