Four tech titans go before Congress

The companies testifying before Congress are widely accused of violating antitrust law. But what is antitrust, exactly, and what makes for a violation?

Put simply, antitrust law is about ensuring a level playing field for competition. Think of it as a type of guardrail designed to keep markets fair. When it works correctly, antitrust law is supposed to prevent companies from abusing their dominance in the marketplace in order to gain an unfair competitive advantage.

This doesn’t mean that monopolies are inherently illegal, at least under US law. And a company doesn’t violate antitrust law simply for being big. But it can violate the law if it does things that harm competition. To determine if that’s happened, regulators like the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission gather economic evidence. Normally, that evidence comes in the form of data showing that prices have risen, or that rival businesses have been hurt, or that innovation has been stifled. Those investigations can lead to lawsuits, fines and, in the most extreme cases, corporate breakups.

But there are limits to antitrust law. It isn’t designed to address how platforms handle political speech or misinformation, for instance, or election security issues. While those topics may come up today, be careful not to conflate the two.

Once the event kicks off at noon, it is expected to follow the usual pattern for congressional hearings: Opening statements by members of Congress, followed by opening statements from witnesses and then rounds of questioning by the lawmakers.

Since it’s a subcommittee hearing and not a hearing of the full Judiciary Committee, expect about a dozen or so lawmakers to be involved in the questioning. It's unclear how long it could go, but given the breadth and depth of the issues at stake, don’t be surprised if this hearing lasts all afternoon.

While Amazon, Facebook, Google and Apple will almost certainly push back against assertions that they are too big and hurt competition, it's hard to argue with the fact that these businesses are staggeringly large and successful.

TikTok’s new American CEO addressed concerns about the app’s Chinese ownership and blasted Facebook in a blog post published on Wednesday, just hours ahead of the antitrust hearing.

“The entire industry has received scrutiny, and rightly so. Yet, we have received even more scrutiny due to the company's Chinese origins,” wrote Kevin Mayer, TikTok's CEO. Mayer, a former Disney executive, joined TikTok in May. 

Mayer went on to note Facebook's attempts to copy TikTok with a rival product from Instagram called Reels:

Amazon (AMZN) CEO Jeff Bezos is expected to tell Congress that “no force in the world should be able to move” a company that reflects on criticism and still decides it is doing the right thing.

In his prepared testimony posted to Amazon’s website, Bezos will begin with a personal appeal, telling the story of his mother and father, before explaining how they invested their life savings in Amazon, and the internet. It was “something they didn’t understand,” Bezos will say, but “they were making a bet on their son.”

Bezos will claim that Amazon faces a crowded marketplace in online retail -- namedropping brands like Target, Costco and Walmart. The CEO will also note that his company deserves to be scrutinized:

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is expected to defend his company from allegations of market dominance and antitrust violations on Wednesday by arguing that his company has helped “millions of businesses" and consumers, particularly during the pandemic, according to a copy of his prepared testimony obtained by CNN Business.

Zuckerberg will seek to dispel claims that the company has harmed competition by arguing that Facebook must constantly compete or face extinction, according to the prepared remarks. He will also point to the rising competitive threat posed by China, which he will claim is “building its own version of the internet focused on very different ideas, and they are exporting their vision to other countries.” 

Facebook’s acquisition of WhatsApp and Instagram did not choke off potential rivals, Zuckerberg will argue, but instead led to new features that those apps would not have introduced independently. Facebook’s merger strategy has been closely scrutinized amid claims that the company has pursued a strategy of acquiring potential threats to its dominance. 

“Facebook is a successful company now,” Zuckerberg’s testimony reads, "but we got there the American way: we started with nothing and provided better products that people find valuable.”

A group of powerful figures who help set the rules for how we work, shop and communicate is about to get grilled by lawmakers in Washington who in theory do the same. And you can watch it unfold in real time on a platform built by one of the companies now in the hot seat.

The House subcommittee hearing with the four tech CEOs will be streaming live on Google-owned YouTube. If you happen to miss it there, you can probably find people sharing clips from it on Facebook, hawking fast self-published books about it on Amazon or talking about it on whatever passes for entertainment on Apple TV, if that's still a thing.

Wednesday's hearing will bring together four of the most powerful tech CEOs in the US, but there is a twist: They won't actually be in the same place. Instead, they will appear together, on one panel, via videoconference.

And which videoconference platform will the tech titans be using? The answer is Cisco's WebEx, which is the platform approved by the House.

The hearing on Wednesday is the culmination of the House's year-long "top to bottom" antitrust review of the tech industry. But the four tech companies at the hearing face numerous other antitrust probes in the US and Europe.

Here's a short list of just the US probes: