Yesterday was a historic day for Big Tech. For the first time, the CEOs of Facebook, Google, Amazon and Apple were forced to bend the knee before members of the US Congress, to answer questions about their monopolistic activities.
‘These platforms enjoy the power to pick winners and losers, shake down small businesses, and enrich themselves while choking off competitors,’ said the chair of the committee, Rep David Cicilline, in his opening remarks, adding that ‘Their ability to dictate terms, call the shots, upend entire sectors, and inspire fear represent the powers of a private government.’
He isn’t wrong. Silicon Valley’s largest companies pride themselves on innovation and a spirit of ‘move fast and break things’. Now the CEOs are being forced to confront some of the things they have broken.
The antitrust charge sheet against the tech titans is extensive: Amazon has squeezed out smaller retailers, Apple uses the App Store as a gatekeeper against apps that compete with its own, Google rigs search results in favour of its own products, and Facebook… well, where to begin?
Traditionally when faced with monopolies, the regulatory solution has been to break them up.
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