What do you get when you combine a handful of Congressmen and four tech executives?
It sounds like a joke.
Oh he heard it already.
We've got representatives from Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Google, and Andrew Heaton.
Howdy fellas. I look forward to your objective questions.
Any single action by one of these companies can affect hundreds of millions of us
in profound and lasting ways.
Like the federal government.
Simply put they have too much power.
They have too much power.
Their ability to dictate terms, call the shots, upend entire sectors,
and inspire fear represent the powers of a private government.
Yeah that's our job.
The concentration of the economic or political power is dangerous to a democratic society
Nobody's having any self-reflection right now.
Can anybody name the three branches of government?
Bullying, fear, and panic.
Nailed it.
Any business that wants to be found on the web must pay Google a tax.
Are you saying taxes are bad? Are you flirting with me?
What's to stop apple from increasing its commission to 50 percent?
That reminds me, let's raise taxes to 50 percent.
Even some of the largest companies in the country fear your power.
Well we're not rolling out unmarked bands in portland so maybe layoff lady.
I will be introducing the house companion bill later this afternoon.
You cannot force people to be your house companion.
Would you agree to this this idea.
I don't know, I mean maybe if it's a voice vote? No, no, no.
I mean six months of lockdown I'm not picky right now.
Grab a bottle of champagne we'll just we'll see what happens.
We all do all kinds of online social media every all kinds of that kind of
that that uh outreach that communication we all we all do all kinds of online
social media every all kinds of that kind of that that uh outreach that communication.
It sounds like you're very communicative
Ever retaliated against or disadvantaged a developer who went public about their
frustrations with the app store?
I think you're asking about punishing whistleblowers and I would like to compliment the gentleman
on keen awareness of the institution in which he presently sits.
America is a remarkable nursery for innovation and entrepreneurship and pursuit of the American dream.
You're saying America is a good place to pursue the American dream?
In America you should be rewarded for success.
What are you gargling?
Being big is not inherently bad.
Thank you yes body positive.
The committee will stand in recess for 10 minutes while we fix a technical feed with one of our witnesses.
There has to be consequences there have to be consequences amazon has said it's
fixing fixing it's fixing fixing fixing whatever it's counterfeit
problem i encourage this body to pass stricter
penalties for counterfeiters and to increase
law enforcement resources to go after counterfeiters we would love for you to
do your job if you could do your job better and smarter
that would make our job a lot easier i'm a government official i know
thanks florida i'm worried about google's market power
everybody's got to go through you there's really no alternative
you should really google ballot access you can use bing i guess
big tech's out to get conservatives if facebook is out there trying to
repress conservative speech they're doing a terrible job at it
top 10 most shared articles on facebook in 2020
trump suggests injection of disinfectant to beat coronavirus
and clean the lungs i mean i'm ready to try it my parents who have a gmail
account aren't getting my campaign emails
they're going to spam in junk folders where they belong they flagged you like
to uh redirect your attention to anti-trust
law rather than fringe conspiracy theories
mr chairman we have the email there is no phrase
it's not your time jordan you do not have the
don't take it seriously does amazon pursue similar
predatory campaigns in other parts of its business you all are just hunting
for sound bites aren't you the way a cheetah
would pursue a sickly gazelle cool i would love to be far more
aggressive and nimble that would be terrifying is it okay to try to extract
in that negotiation leverage with respect to getting content from them
in general i think that when two companies are negotiating you are
negotiating not just the the amount of money that's going to
change hands but also what you're going to get in exchange for the amount of
money yeah so what you're describing in that negotiation is a
negotiation when users say alexa buy batteries alexa response
would you like to buy double a amazon basic batteries we
do promote our own products is that legal
usually in our quest to regulate big companies we end up hurting small
companies more google regulatory capture the whole goal of this committee's work
is to make sure that there are more amazons that there are more apples but
no more political parties people are stuck with bad options
we should still hold the election on time though can you assure
americans today you won't tailor your features to help joe biden in the
upcoming election we support work that campaigns do a yes
or no question have you stopped beating your wife it's
a yes or no question amazon strings you along for a while
because it feels so good to get that paycheck every week
we called it amazon heroin how did you hear about that why on
earth would they compare your company to a drug dealer
maybe because they're responsive and make him happy i want to respectfully
disagree with the characterization respect i strongly disagree with that
characterization great respect i don't agree with the premise i would
like to disrespectfully disagree you all are showboating we could have done this
through email i think that the history proves that congress does a poor job in
picking winners and losers honestly you sound like a cassette tape that's been
pulled out and re-spooled we're back to exactly where we were in 1984. there was
a 1984 super bowl ad i remember it very well the ad ends with
this lady running in in color and smashing the screen
it was uh apple versus ibm at the time yeah but
that the point was mob think cancel culture group think is not what
this country is about i'm sorry are you telling the ceo of apple what an
apple ad is about very quickly can each of you simply
commit to improving racial and gender equity at your company no but we will
automate everyone equally can you just make a blanket commitment
i'll take the duvet this hearing has made one fact clear to me let the
records show that the congressman is reading a prepared statement
about what he just learned today this must
end thank god