Read on Twitter
I'll be live tweeting today's tech antitrust hearing starting at 12 p.m. EST along with the good people of @themarkup
@ASankin @tenuous @AnnieGilbertson @colinlecher @jonkeegan @JuliaAngwin. Feel free to smash that 24 hour mute button
@ASankin @tenuous @AnnieGilbertson @colinlecher @jonkeegan @JuliaAngwin. Feel free to smash that 24 hour mute button
One challenge with this hearing is that it could go really broad. What is an antitrust issue? Are negative externalities like disinformation relevant because it is the scale of these companies that makes those effects so devastating?
I'm focusing on Google today (shout out to my story yesterday with @LeonYin https://themarkup.org/google-the-giant/2020/07/28/google-search-results-prioritize-google-products-over-competitors).
In addition to scrutiny from Congress, Google faces antitrust investigations from FTC, DOJ, and literally every state except Alabama.
https://www.theverge.com/2020/7/13/21322370/google-antitrust-california-attorney-general-advertising-technology-search-acquisitions
In addition to scrutiny from Congress, Google faces antitrust investigations from FTC, DOJ, and literally every state except Alabama.
https://www.theverge.com/2020/7/13/21322370/google-antitrust-california-attorney-general-advertising-technology-search-acquisitions
Antitrust scrutiny typically falls into three big buckets for Google: ads, search, and Android. Data and privacy also comes up.
Cicilline opens by citing Google's 90% U.S. market share in search and mentions "digital ad markets" and "browsers, smartphones, and digital maps."
Cicilline opens by citing Google's 90% U.S. market share in search and mentions "digital ad markets" and "browsers, smartphones, and digital maps."
Rep. Sensenbrenner: "Being big is not necessarily bad." American companies should be rewarded for success. But he shares the concern that market dominance in tech is ripe for abuse especially when it comes to free speech.
So if you were wondering if Republicans are going to use this antitrust hearing to talk about alleged partisan bias on platforms, it seems like the answer is definitely yes — the idea that conservative views are being censored by platforms was in their opening statement.
Echoes of this memo obtained by @matthewstoller https://www.dropbox.com/s/jxbsydt1ehtxqrz/Jim-Jordan-Memo.pdf?dl=0 in Sensenbrenner's statement
Rep. Jim Jordan: "I'll just cut to the chase: big tech is out to get conservatives."
Waiting for him to tie this back to antitrust.
Waiting for him to tie this back to antitrust.
Weird to remember that @sundarpichai is still relatively new to this job. He took over Alphabet at the end of 2019 — after 15 years at the company — when cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin fully stepped back.
I wonder if @sundarpichai read our story yesterday. https://themarkup.org/google-the-giant/2020/07/28/google-search-results-prioritize-google-products-over-competitors
Another challenge in antitrust is defining markets. Mark Zuckerberg has very broad definitions of markets — he says YouTube competes against cable, Amazon competes against Kroger, and Whatsapp competes against telcos.
First question of the hearing mentions Google's 90% U.S. search engine market and asks about @celebnetworth, which lost traffic to featured snippets. Cicilline: "Why does Google steal content from honest businesses?"
Cicilline is moving quickly. He lets the first question drop, then: "Increasingly what Google shows is what is most profitable for Google. Isn’t there a fundamental conflict of interest?"
This is what our story yesterday was all about. Google makes 5x as much revenue on ads on its own properties versus ads on independent websites.
@sundarpichai counters by saying they show ads on very few queries. We found that's true, but it shows its own products frequently.
@sundarpichai counters by saying they show ads on very few queries. We found that's true, but it shows its own products frequently.
Cicilline was aggressive and laser-focused on impact to competition with short questions. "Did Google ever use its surveillance over web traffic to identify competitive threats?"
Not a compelling answer from @sundarpichai, who says they use their data to improve their products.
Not a compelling answer from @sundarpichai, who says they use their data to improve their products.
Rep. Ken Buck asks why Google dropped its bid for the $10 billion JEDI project, citing a conflict with its values. Then he began painting Google as a China sympathizer. Then moved on to the fact that Genius caught its lyrics appearing as a direct answer on Google.
That was an unexpected setup. Rep. Buck: "Do you think that Google could get away with follow China's corporate espionage playbook if you didn't have a monopolistic advantage in the market?"
