Today's antitrust hearing has started -- you can watch here. Right now Rep. Cicilline is giving an opening statement noting how huge all four companies are. https://www.theverge.com/2020/7/29/21336216/antitrust-hearing-live-stream-time-date-apple-amazon-facebook-google-congress

Cicilline says each of the companies abuse their control over current technology to protect power, by buying, copying, and cutting off competitors.

"Concentrated markets and concentrated political systems are incompatible with democratic ideals," says Cicilline. He says the companies are big enough to be a private government. "We should not bow before the emperors of the online economy."

Now on to Rep. Sensenbrenner, R-WI. (This whole process has been pretty bipartisan throughout.) "Being big is not inherently bad," he says. "My colleagues and I have a great interest in what your companies do with that accumulated power." He wants to understand how they use data.

Sensenbrenner says consumer welfare standard has served country well. "However, as the business landscape evolves, we must ensure existing antitrust law is applied to serve the needs of consumers." And now a tangent about free speech. "Conservatives are consumers too."

Now Rep. Nadler giving an opening statement. "Concentration of power in any form... is dangerous to a democratic society."

I'm only livetweeting because I don't know how to react to news except by liveblogging. But @thedextriarchy has an actually-good live-updating story here if you just want to check in from time to time on this hearing, which will stretch for hours: https://www.theverge.com/2020/7/29/21335706/antitrust-hearing-highlights-facebook-google-amazon-apple-congress-testimony

Jim Jordan says "Big Tech is out to get conservatives." The circus is here.

Jordan is ranting about platform moderation and how the World Health Organization shills for China. "I haven't even mentioned Twitter." He is now ranting about Twitter shadowbanning members of Congress.

Twitter is not in this hearing, because it's a tiny company with no market power compared to these four. This is not dissuading Jim Jordan from ranting about Twitter.

Jordan yelling that their "have to be consequences" for Twitter moderating conservatives. So I guess that's why we are going to break up Facebook? Sure.

After the Jim Jordan Four Loko Experience has come to a close, Cicilline is introducing the CEOs.

Now Bezos is reading his opening statement. All of these opening statements are publicly posted already, you can read up on them here: https://www.theverge.com/2020/7/29/21346321/amazon-google-apple-facebook-ceos-congress-opening-remarks-statements-bezos-cook-zuckerberg-pichai

Now it's Pichai's turn to give his opening statement. He says a discussion about competition is a discussion about opportunity. All of these CEOs are talking about their personal experiences building products.

"Google's continued success is not guaranteed," says Pichai. "New competitors emerge every day." This is going to be a theme -- all four CEOs are going to insist they are terrified by a huge variety of companies that compete with them.

Tim Cook is up now. He mentions the "seamless integration of hardware and software" within moments.

Cook is talking about the App Store as a revolutionary alternative to physical media software distribution, without mentioning that online software distribution also exists and is commonly used on the Mac, his other platform.

Zuckerberg now up. "Our business model is advertising," he says. He's pointing out that the other companies compete with them in various ways, calling them gatekeepers "with the power to keep our apps out of their app stores."

CEO tech check: Bezos, Zuck and Pichai don't have computers in front of them that I can see. Cook appears to have an iPad.

Okay, we're on to questions. These are going to be five minute blocks for each member of the committee; the Dems at least are going to focus on one company at a time. Cicilline begins with Google.

"Why does Google steal content from other businesses?" Cicilline asks. (This is the Yelp Memorial Question.)Pichai says they don't do that.

Cicilline follows up with question about the value of Google ads. He's hammering Pichai from the jump. "Google evolved from a turnstile to the rest of the web to a walled garden." Referencing internal Google docs calling external sites a threat.

This is going to be a theme -- this committee has a LOT of internal docs, 1.3m collected over the course of the last year-plus. We will hear a lot about them.

Cicilline asks why Google threatened Yelp in various ways. Pichai says he is happy to help him understand various issues later. It's like that.

"As Google became the gateway to the internet... it has identified competitors and crushed them" says Cicilline. And he's done for now. On to Sensenbrenner.

Sensenbrenner rambling about "the way the Net was put together" and asking Zuck about filtering political speech. "Conservatives are consumers too" makes a repeat appearance.

Sensenbrenner says he wouldn't take hydroxychloroquine but that it's. a legitimate matter of discussion, and asks Zuck about taking down Donald Trump Jr's account being taken down. Zuck reminds him that that happened on Twitter, not Facebook.

SIGH

The Wisconsin GOP remains deeply and utterly embarassing.

Nadler is up now, asking Zuck about the purchase of Instagram. We have the internal docs in an exclusive here: https://twitter.com/CaseyNewton/status/1288537103802851329

"It was not a guarantee that Instagram was going to succeed," says Zuck. He notes Path doesn't exist anymore.

Now Rep Buck with a full throated defense of capitalism. "You have all enjoyed the freedom to succeed," he says. Now on to Google dropping out of the JEDI military contract bc it did not align with Google's values. He is mad about that.

Buck is asking if Google works with the Chinese military and not the US military. (Google does not operate in China; its project to build a search engine for China is mired in internal controversy.)

Buck says Google stealing rap lyric search results from Genius is the same as... Chinese military espionage? Incredible

Cook's first time in the hot seat. Question is about the app store review process, from Rep Johnson. "The App Store is a feature of the iPhone, much like the camera," Cook says. I don't know about that.

Clear split between the Dems on the committee, who are basically running a trial, and the GOP members, who are doing something... else.

Rep Johnson asking why Amazon gets reduced commissions in the App Store and if anyone else can get them. Cook says yes if they meet conditions.

Rep Johnson asks "what's to stop Apple from increasing commissions to 50%?" Cook says they've never raised commissions, and there is a competition for developers. "They can write their apps for Android, Windows, Xbox, Playstation." Says it's a "street fight for market share."

On to Matt Gaetz, who once again asks about whether Google supports the military and the police. The circus has returned.

Gaetz asks Pichai to pledge that he will not adopted the "bigoted" anti-police policies of not working with the police. Pichai doesn't take the bait and says Google works with the police when supported by due process. Good for him.

Gaetz is ranting about Google helping to build a Chinese fighter jet. Pichai flatly denies this.

Rep Raskin asking about white supremacists on Facebook and social division in America. Zuck says Facebook has taken a lot of steps since 2016 to protect election integrity.

Committee is recess for 10 minutes "while we fix a technical feed with one of our witnesses." No questions for Bezos yet, if you're keeping track.

Anyway, a good time to pause and read our Facebook story :) https://www.theverge.com/2020/7/29/21345723/facebook-instagram-documents-emails-mark-zuckerberg-kevin-systrom-hearing

Annnnd we're back. Rep Armstrong is back at it about Google censoring conservatives, and whether Google's market power insulates it from the consequences of irritating people

Rep Armstrong is going on a tear about the GDPR and how it prevents advertisers from cross shopping platforms? Yelling at Google for complying with the law in Europe is pretty odd, but Armstrong says regulation might squeeze out competition; he doesn't like GDPR for that reason.

Armstrong is now going on about geofencing warrants and the Fourth Amendment. This is important and interesting but... not really a competition issue? Sundar is deflecting.

Rep Jayapal up. She reps Washington state, and her first question is for Bezos, about using seller data to make competitive products. Bezos says it's against policy, but he can't guarantee it's never been violated.

Rep Jayapal asks about a WSJ article showing Amazon uses data to make competitive products. This is a hot button; Amazon denied doing this an earlier hearing. Bezos is saying he can't say much bc article sources were anonymous.

Bezos says there is a policy not to use data, and no other retailer even has that policy. Jayapal says committee has documents and interviews say rule often broken. (She is very, very good at this, maybe the best so far.)

(Jayapal told @kellymakena she views her role as an "investigator" before the hearing started, you can read that here: https://www.theverge.com/2020/7/28/21344920/big-tech-ceo-antitrust-hearing-apple-facebook-amazon-google-facebook)

Jayapal asks about third-party sellers, and if Amazon uses data to make sure they small.

Cicilline tells the CEOs to stop wasting time by saying the questions are good questions. "We'll just assume they are good questions." Heh.

Rep Steube up now, asking if Google censors Gateway Pundit. "I had to actually type in http://Gatewaypundit.com  to get to it." The horror.

"I actually physically did this on my laptop," says Steube. "Has anything changed your approach to silencing websites?" A champion for justice. And SEO.

Steube says his supporters and parents aren't getting campaign emails in Gmail. "This appears to only be happening to conservative Republicans...it's a fact, it's happening." Nothing is less convincing than asking these CEOs for tech support.

Pichai says there's nothing in the Gmail algo that filters politics, notes that the World Socialist Organization also complains. Ha.

Rep Demings asks about the DoubleClick acquisition and the combination of ad data Google said would be kept separate. The Dems are running a very tight hearing about specific competition issues; the Rs are asking for tech support.

Pichai goes through Google's privacy settings; Demings interrupts and says she's concerned Doubleclick deal was a "bait and switch" to grab more data.

The Jim Jordan Natty Light Power Hour is back, asking if Google will tailor its features to help Biden in the election. Pichai says they won't do any work to tilt anything.

Jordan is ranting about Google's efforts to increase the Latino vote in "key states" like Arizona and Florida in 2016. (You will note Trump won Arizona and Florida.)

Jim Jordan is now interrupting Rep Scanlon, who said "getting away from conspiracy theories." Cicilline told him to put his mask back on.

Scanlon asking Bezos about the http://diapers.com  acquisition, where Amazon waged a price war to lower the deal cost, and then cut its promotions and increased diaper prices. Bezos says he "doesn't remember that at all."

Bezos says "diapers is a very large product category, sold in many places." Scanlon is not letting him filibuster, says predatory practices weren't unique. Bezos says he doesn't remember the email she's mentioning.

Hey, I recognize that website https://twitter.com/HouseJudiciary/status/1288543194922258432

Rep Neguse now asking Facebook about other competitors and its total marketshare. Zuck says he faces a lot of competitors in everything they do.

Rep McBath asking Bezos about small biz owners who say they are bullied by the company. Playing audio from a textbook company owner who was restricted from selling on Amazon. Bezos says he would like to talk to her. "It does not seem like the right way to treat her."

McBath says "this is not about one business, this is about a pattern of behavior." Not buying Bezos offering to step in and fix it.

Bezos trying to say third-party sellers are important and valued by Amazon, which is probably news to a lot of third-party sellers.

Back to Cicilline, who asks Bezos if small businesses have any other options for selling online. Bezos says Amazon is not the only option, "but I believe we are the best one."

Cicilline asking about Amazon copying products sold by third parties and undercutting them. Bezos says they were convinced running the platform for sellers was better for consumers, kind of dodges the question.

Cicilline asks about the policy of Amazon not using data to compete with third parties. Bezos replies "we have a policy against using individual seller data" and that they are looking at it very carefully as a result of the WSJ article.

Sensenbrenner again. "I have reached the conclusion that we do not need to change our antitrust laws... the question here is the enforcement of those laws." He notes the Obama FTC signed off on the Instagram acquisition.

"Back about 35 years ago, AT&T was broken up," Sensenbrenner says, calling it a "flop" and "counterproductive."

"Guess what? We're back to where we were in 1984."

Sesenbrenner asks Bezos how consumers would be helped by breaking up Amazon. Bezos, grinning, says they would not.
Asks Pichai if consumers would be helped by spinning off YouTube. Pichai says they would not.

Very illuminating.

Nap time with Jim Sensenbrenner has concluded. Rep Jayapal is back up with email receipts of Zuck talking about copying apps so users don't leave. Zuck says "we certainly adapted features that others have led in, as have others" done to them.

Has Facebook ever threatened to clone a product while trying to acquire it? asks Jayapal. As Zuck starts to deny it, she reminds him he's under oath and reminds him he threatened Kevin Systrom during IG deal. Ice-cold.

"I don't view those conversations as a threat in any way," says Zuck. "Did you warn Evan Spiegel that Facebook was cloning the features of his company while trying to buy Snapchat?" asks Jayapal.

Rep Buck tells he's concerned Amazon's dominant position to beat competition. Brings up private label products again, specifically allowing counterfeit PopSockets until PopSockets agreed to a $2m marketing deal with Amazon.

Rep Buck asks everyone to agree that slave labor is bad. Everyone agrees. Hard-hitting.

Rep Raskin asks Bezos about Amazon's role as a gatekeeper. "A lot of people want to know when HBO Max will be available on your Fire device." @loudmouthjulia !!

Bezos says he's not in that negotiation. "I believe they will come to an agreement, it's two large companies." Raskin says if large companies are struggling, they stand in for thousands of small companies. This is a fun line of questioning, but like... AT&T will be fine.

"Are you essentially converting power in one domain into power in another domain where it doesn't belong?" re the Fire / HBO Max negotiation. Bezos says he just doesn't know the details.

Raskin asks if the Echo is priced below cost. Bezos says when it's on promotions, yes. Raskin asks if smart home is a winner take all market. Bezos says no, their vision is that smart speakers should answer to different wake words. This is true!

Raskin asks why leading market position is valuable if there are no network effects, re the acquisition of Ring. Bezos patiently explains that market position is valuable for many reasons. Heh.

"Has Alexa been trained to favor Amazon products when user shops by voice?" Bezos says "it wouldn't surprise me if Alexa promoted our own products."

Oh good, Matt Gaetz is back to weave an elaborate conspiracy theory about how working on AI in China helps the Chinese military and then abruptly says "I want to talk about search" and brings up "leaked memos from the Daily Caller."

Matt Gaetz is talking about bog-standard platform moderation practices and staffing like it's the world's greatest conspiracy

Pichai has gotten the most insane questions of anyone and his general demeanor of extreme patience is serving him very well.

Gaetz is trying to catch Pichai in a trap that makes no sense -- individual search results are algorithmic, with signals that include manually curated lists of sites with disinformation. Pichai "strongly disagrees" with his characterization of political bias.

Nadler up now, asking about Facebook video and inflated video views causing many publishers to fire journalists in a "pivot to video."

Zuckerberg "regrets that mistake."

"What do you have to say to the journalists who lost their jobs as a result of Facebook's deception?"

Zuck "rejects that characterization."

Nadler asks Pichai about using the data from multiple sites collected in Chrome to show ads. Pichai says users can turn off ad personalization.

Rep Steube is "going to pick up where I left off," which was an avalanche of pure nonsense. He wants to know why YouTube pulled the debunked hydroxychloroquine video.

Pichai says if a video explicitly states something is a proven cure it'll get taken down. Stuebe does not understand why YouTube is allowed to moderate its own platform.

Stuebe tells Zuck it's proven platforms stifle conservative thought, and asks how Facebook hires content moderators, as though content moderators as a huge secret.

Stuebe does not seem to be aware that Facebook employs uhhh Joel Kaplan and Nick Clegg when he demands to know about ideological diversity

Fox News is routinely the highest-engaged content on Facebook, so much so that Facebook has been pushing back on that fact with other metrics showing more neutrality. Stuebe is just lost on the facts here.

Rep Johnson coming back to hammer Bezos on counterfeit products. The Dems seem very focused on a handful of issues with these companies, and the trends are starting to be clearer.

Bezos says "counterfeits are a huge problem" and that Amazon works to keep third-party counterfeits off the site as well. Johnson brings up PopSockets again, which Bezos calls "unacceptable."

We've reached the point of the hearing where Jeff Bezos is very sorry for doing all the things Amazon routinely does.

And we are in a brief recess. So far Tim Cook has been largely spared, but I'm wondering if that's coming next.

And we're back. Rep Armstrong asking Bezos about using data to compete with third-party sellers, says Jayapal's line of question was important. Bipartisanship!

Does Amazon allow the use of aggregate data when there are only two sellers of a product? Yes, says Bezos, saying they are investigating the allegations in the WSJ article.

Armstrong asks if Twitch has licenses for music and DMCA requests. Bezos clearly has no idea how Twitch works, asks to get back to him.

Armstrong asks Pichai about retiring third-party cookies in Chrome and putting other ad marketplaces at risk. "At the danger of being pro-cookie because I am not, does Google have other ways to gather user data that others do not?" Pichai says other browses made the same changes.

Rep Demings brings up a Zuck email from 2012where he says they enforce policies against competitors more strongly. Zuck says in 2012 they were primarily worried about larger competitors at the time. Demings brings emails debating restricting Pinterest's access and not Netflix.

A Cook question. Deming asks about the removal of parental control apps in 2019. Cook says the use of MDM tech placed kids' data at risk. Demings notes Apple allowed Absher, an MDM app that tracked women in Saudi Arabia.

Demings asks if Apple's own parental control apps led into the decision to restrict the MDM apps. Cook says Apple doesn't get any revenue here, Demings says she wasn't asking about revenue.

Jim Jordan yields to Gaetz, like one bro tossing another a Five Hour Energy. Gaetz has more nonsense questions about Facebook disadvantaging conservatives, which all available data shows is the opposite of what is happening.

Mark Zuckerberg being asked to answer for the claims in a misleading Project Veritas video is very specific kind of karma.

Gaetz really wants Zuck to admit it's possible Facebook disadvantages conservatives, but honestly Zuck is way too good at moderation questions for this to work.

Gaetz is talking about Palmer Luckey, who was badly mistreated by Facebook in the form of being paid millions of dollars to leave.

Rep Scanlon asking about the YouTube acquisition, and knowingly collecting data on children on YouTube. Pichai says Google "takes it very seriously" and says Google flagged and removed close to a million videos.

Pichai saying families use YouTube and some advertisers target ads to them. Scanlon asks if shows like Sesame Street can block ads for junk food on YouTube. Pichai doesn't have a great answer here, because the answer is no.

Mood

Neguse now asking Bezos about ecommerce market share. Bezos says "I don't accept that ecommerce is a different market," but says Amazon has 30ish percent share of the "stream."

Neguse asks if Amazon uses confidential information from AWS to build competing services, references reporting that Amazon engineers targeted growing businesses on AWS. "There may be databases of different kinds and so on where we make our own product in that arena" says Bezos.

Neguse brings up a WSJ story where AWS cloned an AI company. Bezos read the article but "doesn't remember the specifics," asks to get back to the committee. Neguse says he's worried about the "innovation kill zone."