Thread by @matthewstoller

House Antitrust Subcommittee hearing on innovation and big tech is starting now. judiciary.house.gov/legislation/he…

Big tech lobbyists testifying to the House Antitrust Subcommittee. Economies of scale in using all white men.

So Dem @davidcicilline has a strong opening statement on competition, but Republican @JimPressOffice basically spent his time talking about why it’s bad to break up big companies.

@davidcicilline @JimPressOffice Monopolists do innovate, but they innovate in legal arbitrage. Apple spends $1 billion on legal services.

@davidcicilline @JimPressOffice Google’s Adam Cohen says there are many alternatives to Google as information providers. That’s just not true in search. Bing and Google are the only full web indexes.

@davidcicilline @JimPressOffice Matt Perrault of Facebook brings up TikTok as a new and important competitor.

@davidcicilline @JimPressOffice Yup. Here are big tech lobbyists testifying now.

https://twitter.com/revolvingdoorDC/status/1151208513886142465?s=20

@davidcicilline @JimPressOffice Weird!

https://twitter.com/revolvingdoorDC/status/1151210374944972805?s=20

@davidcicilline @JimPressOffice Smell the democracy. Smell it. SMELL IT!

https://twitter.com/juliacarriew/status/1151198566863388673?s=20

@davidcicilline @JimPressOffice Apple’s Kyle Andeer says Apple democratizes coding. So much democracy!

@davidcicilline @JimPressOffice Godzilla is not a problem, there is always Mechagodzilla.

https://twitter.com/b_fung/status/1151212893175762944?s=20

@davidcicilline @JimPressOffice Nice question. @RepMGS points out that Google results for youtube produced shows don’t show up on search, but search results for non-google produced shows do show up. Adam Cohen just denies the discrepancy.

@davidcicilline @JimPressOffice @RepMGS Matt Perrault says two of Facebook’s key innovations were newsfeed and the Like button. Those are both almost ten years old!

@davidcicilline @JimPressOffice @RepMGS Adam Cohen of Google cites a Google-funded PPI study on advertising to show how great the company is for independent business.

@davidcicilline @JimPressOffice @RepMGS Now @RepJayapal asks if Facebook acquires promising potentially competitive apps. Facebook official straight up lies and says no. She follows up by asking about TBH.

@davidcicilline @JimPressOffice @RepMGS @RepJayapal These guys are sworn in. These answers are perjury-ish.

@davidcicilline @JimPressOffice @RepMGS @RepJayapal Nate Sutton of Amazon says they don’t use seller data to figure out which product lines to enter. This is nuts. And gutsy of @RepJayapal to target Amazon. (She’s from Seattle.)

@davidcicilline @JimPressOffice @RepMGS @RepJayapal Now @davidcicilline hammering on a core problem for both Google and Amazon, which is non-discrimination.

@davidcicilline @JimPressOffice @RepMGS @RepJayapal Amazon’s Nate Sutton tries to say there’s no distinction between online and offline retailing in response to a question from @gregsteube

@davidcicilline @JimPressOffice @RepMGS @RepJayapal @gregsteube “We are constantly changing our terms and conditions.” But Facebook’s Matt Perault can’t tell @RepHankJohnson how many times Facebook has changed its terms and conditions.

@davidcicilline @JimPressOffice @RepMGS @RepJayapal @gregsteube @RepHankJohnson “There may not be an identical competitor to Facebook.” Matt Perault, Facebook

@davidcicilline @JimPressOffice @RepMGS @RepJayapal @gregsteube @RepHankJohnson Great question by @RepValDemings. She asks what prevents Amazon from using its marketing/ad business as a toll on businesses who must sell through Amazon.

@davidcicilline @JimPressOffice @RepMGS @RepJayapal @gregsteube @RepHankJohnson @RepValDemings Interesting line of questions from @JoeNeguse. Is Facebook a monopoly?

FB: No.

Neguse points out that Facebook owns four of the largest six social networking feature in the world.

@davidcicilline @JimPressOffice @RepMGS @RepJayapal @gregsteube @RepHankJohnson @RepValDemings @JoeNeguse Finally! @JoeNeguse points out FB’s developer guidelines were straight up anti-competitor. You cannot compete with Facebook.

@davidcicilline @JimPressOffice @RepMGS @RepJayapal @gregsteube @RepHankJohnson @RepValDemings @JoeNeguse Congresswoman @lucymcbath asks about Amazon’s use of Fulfillment by Amazon to coerce sellers. These members are prepared and understand tech platforms. Impressive.

@davidcicilline @JimPressOffice @RepMGS @RepJayapal @gregsteube @RepHankJohnson @RepValDemings @JoeNeguse @lucymcbath What recourse do third party sellers have on Amazon?

A dashboard.

@davidcicilline @JimPressOffice @RepMGS @RepJayapal @gregsteube @RepHankJohnson @RepValDemings @JoeNeguse @lucymcbath House Antitrust Committee Dems are quietly awesome. @RepJayapal @lucymcbath @RepValDemings @davidcicilline @RepRaskin @JoeNeguse @RepHankJohnson

@davidcicilline @JimPressOffice @RepMGS @RepJayapal @gregsteube @RepHankJohnson @RepValDemings @JoeNeguse @lucymcbath @RepRaskin Google’s Adam Cohen is asked about Google paying $9B Apple to be the default search engine on iPhones. Cohen says he is not familiar with the deal. Why is he testifying? This is not small.