On twitter or facebook. Lets start with yesterdays hearing. Chairman of the house judiciary antitrust subcommittee kicking off this hearing in the opening remarks saying that he believes these Companies Need to be reined in. The practices have armful economic effects. They discourage entrepreneurship, destroy jobs, and degraded quality. Simply put, they have too much power. This power staves off new forms of competition, creativity, and innovation. While these firms produce individual products, the dominance is killing Small Businesses, manufacturing, and dynamism that our engines of the american economy. Several firms harvest and abuse peoples data to sell ads from everything to new books and dangerous miracle cures. They cant run away fast enough. There is no escape from the surveillance because there is no alternative. People are stuck with bad options. Open markets are predicated on the idea that if a company harms people, consumers, workers, and Business Partners will choose another option. We are here today because that choice is no longer possible. Host in the Washington Post, the front page article notes that david cicilline, the chair of the subcommittee is expected to issue a report in august outlining the case for updating federal competition rules that would give regulators more power to probe and penalize the industry. The investigation could offer congress one of the first major actions it can take as it looks big tech. The Top Republican on the panel urged a go slow approach to regulating big tech. Be on this going to committee and the next congress. I will put my feet up and become. Senior statesmen ar we have heard a lot of complaints about big tech. Some of them are political in nature, and im sure the complaints i share the complaints of mr. Jordan and others. About allegedly anticompetitive activities. It seems to me that it is not for congress that legislates to toss all of our antitrust laws that have been established. We will make a determination on whether or not the law has been violated. I think the law is good. We dont need to throw it all in the wastebasket. Congressman from wisconsin making the argument of going slow when it comes to regulating big tech. What is your opinion of this . James, you say no. Why do you say no to regulating these companies . Caller i dont think it is the big techs problem. Is what is problem going on in society with the rioting. And the big tech is doing what they do to the best of their ability. That is not what is hurting Small Business. Small business is hurt by the lawlessness going on in the country. And the democrats are doing nothing about it. Host listen to the argument made by democratic congresswoman jayapal. She is questioning Mark Zuckerberg on their Business Practices. Similarou use this facebook camera product to threaten instagrams founder . Would not sure what you mean by threaten. I think it was public that we were building a camera app that was a welldocumented thing. Let me tell you in a chat that you told him that facebook was developing our own photo strategy, so how we engage now will determine how much we are partners versus competitors down line. E or cow the he confided in an investor that he feared you would go into destroy mode if he didnt sell instagram to you. Facebook cloned a popular product, approached the company you identified as a competitive threat and told them that if they didnt want you to buy them up, there would be consequences. Are there other Countries Companies you have used the same tactic with . I want to respectfully disagree with the characterization. It was clear this was a space we were going to compete in one way or another. I dont view those conversations as a threat in any way. Understood using the. Ocuments and the testimony did you warn them that facebook was in the process of cloning features of his company while attempting to buy snapchat. I dont remember those specific conversations, but it is also an area that it was very fair we were going to be building something. Very clear we were going to be building something. People wanted to communicate privately with all of their friends at once. We want to build the best product in all of the spaces that we can around helping people stay connected with the people they care about. Question is that when the dominant platform threatens a potential rival, that should not be a normal business practice. Facebook is a case study in monopoly power because your company harvests and monetizes our data. Then your company uses that data to spy on competitors and copy, acquire, and kill rivals. You have used facebooks power to threaten smaller competitors and ensure that you will always get your way. These tactics reinforce facebook path dominance facebooks dominance. Facebooks model makes it impossible for new companies to flourish separately. That harms our democracy and harms momandpop businesses and consumers. I yield back. Host the wall street Journal Editorial Board argues this morning that the legal test for antitrust is consumer benefit, not size. This is what it argues when it comes to facebook. Facebook is attacked for buying instagram but invested heavily to make the site easy to use. There is no way to know if instagram could have been a competitor had it remained independent. It might have become the yahoo of search, an alsoran. Later on in the hearing, the chair jerry nadler, democrat from new york, also questioned Mark Zuckerberg about comments he made in 2012 regarding the companys efforts to acquire instagram. Facebookly 2012, when contemplated acquiring instagram, a competitive startup, you told the cfo that instagram could be very disruptive to us. In the weeks leading up to the deal, you described instagram as a threat, saying that instagram can immediately hurt us without becoming a huge business. What did you mean when you described instagram as a threat, disruptive . And you say that instagram could meaningfully hurt facebook . Did you mean that consumers might switch from facebook to instagram . The opportunity to address this. At the time, there was a small but growing field did you mean that consumers might mean from facebook to instagram . Thanks, congressman. Yes or no . In the space of mobile photos and camera apps, they were a competitor. Fine. 2012, you told facebooks chief Financial Officer that you were interested in buying instagram. He asked if the purpose was to neutralize a content a potential competitor or acquire services . You said it was a combination of both. What we are really buying his time, even if more competitors spring up, they wont get much traction since we will have their mechanics floyd at scale deployed at scale. What did you mean when you said the purpose of the deal was to neutralize a potential competitor . But ise arent my words, was clear that instagram was a competitor in the space of mobile photo sharing. There were a lot of others at pcicplease and Companies Like pass. It was a subset of the overall space of connecting that we exist in. And by having them join us, they certainly went from being a competitor in the space of being a mobile camera to an app that we could help grow and get more people be able to use and be on our team. Zuckerberg, mergers and acquisitions that buy off potential competitive threats violate the antitrust laws. In your own words, you purchased instagram to neutralize a competitive threat. Politico points out that Mark Zuckerberg went on in the hearing to point out that the federal trade commission are new his thinking about federal trade commissioner new his thinking about instagram in 2012 and approve the purchase. They signed off on the deal. What congressman cicilline told zuckerberg that the failures of ftc in 2012 do not alleviate the antitrust challenges. The shorter version, just because that one corner of the federal apparatus approved a deal eight years ago does not mean that zuckerberg is out of the woods. Deals that are made can be unmade. Your thoughts. James, you say yes to regulating big tech. Why . James, good morning to you. James in daytona beach, florida. In me move on to steve charleston, south carolina. You are on the air. Good morning. Caller i am on the fence. I had to pick yes or no to call, but im on the fence. There are negatives and positives. I know youre really concentrating the discussion around Business Practices of these Big Tech Companies. In only want to zero amazon because there are so many complaints about amazon. A brief word about facebook. Facebook to me is like a big toy for adults and children and people to use. And if you get on facebook, people lay their life out there. Their personal business, they can picture a hang nile hangnail or the ring you just bought. That is your own business. I dont believe in it. I just dont care to do that. I dont care to put everything on facebook. It is like the old redneck joke, hold my beer and watch this. That is what you do and go when you go on facebook. But back to face but back to amazon. They have contributed to the demise of brickandmortar business. In charleston, we lost sears and kmart. On the other hand, i shop on amazon. Almost every case, you can see the product you are buying allows you to contact the seller. And generally, that seller is a Small Business owner. And neededto parts some installation information. I contacted the seller, which was a very Small Business in georgia. I asked him about the information and he gave it to me. I said, how youre are doing with amazon . He said their business has increased tremendously. There is the other side of that story. If you dont want to shop it, dont shop it. I recently bought some restaurant equipment by searching and found a place. Im on the fence about Business Practices and i dont want doing anything illegal or getting into my private information. See a other hand, i dont problem from an economic standpoint. In maryland, you say yes. Caller good morning. My comment is that amazon, ceosook, apple, and those are selfmade billionaires. The government is right now. Rying to break them down we, as a people, made them successful. And he wasnt a billionaire, but he ran for the office. Facebook has more credibility than our president does. Thats my comment. Marie, good morning to you. Caller hello . Host you are on the air. Caller everything looks good sometimes. Washed clothes on the washboard and got better with washing machines. People need to put those down sometimes and get back to god. Get back to your bible. Host a reminder to turn down the television when it is your turn to talk. Listen and talk to the telephone. See theays i dont point of breaking up anything. You can be abused by four companies or 400. It is what we require them to do. We can only demand what they do what they promised to do, which in my view, they have failed. And patty says absolutely. If it wasnt for lobbyists, Big Companies would be regulated as they were growing. Americans would cry and be outraged if they realized the Data Protection laws other countries have made for their citizens. And bob says yes. Big tech has their thumb on the scale against President Trump. At 202 ext us 7488003. Gary from new hampshire. Why do you think they should be regulated . Facebookes, because has a lot of bad actors to use their data. And the facebook platform infiltrates elections. This happened with brexit, and the analytica election in 2016. Facebook does not seem to be falseg to regulate this news. Troubledemocracy is in because of it. They need to be regulated. David brought up amazon earlier and their Business Practices. , theirl street journal argument for not regulating or breaking up these Companies Say this. Byazon has prospered in part becoming a marketplace for Small Business, not by excluding it. Someone. 7 million small and medium businesses sell through amazon. Had or than0,000 100,000 in sales in 2019. Amazon eclipsed ebay because entrepreneurs thought it serve them better. Amazon was a lifeline for businesses forced to shut down their storefronts in the pandemic or cow pandemic. Here is lucy mcbath and her exchange with amazon Ceo Jeff Bezos on the treatment of smaller sellers. Third Party Sellers in aggregate are doing extremely well on amazon. It was zeros ago, and today is 60 of sales. Thank you very much. Mr. Beezus, thank you so much. Mr. Bezos, thank you so much. That is not at all what we found in our investigation. According to e marketer, a committee,d to this amazon is nearly seven times the market share of the closest ecommerce competitor. Amazon continues to be the only show in town, no matter how angry sellers get. They have nowhere else to go. Are you saying these people arent being truthful when they say amazon is the only game in town . With great respect, i do disagree with that. I believe there are a lot of options and some of them are not even listed on the chart. I did not see some that i know of, for example. There are more and more every day. My time is short. If amazon did not have monopoly power, would they choose to stay in a relationship characterized by bullying, fear, and panic . With all respect, congresswoman, i do not accept the premise of your question. That is not how we operate the business. We work very hard to provide fantastic help to sellers and that is why they have been successful. Host from yesterdays big tech hearing on capitol hill, we covered it on cspan. You can go to watch the key moments on cspan. Org. Click on the video player and you will quickly go through what was a fivehour hearing yesterday. Maryland, you say no to regulating these companies. Why . Caller i am for capitalism. We have done too much regulating. What they can do, they can find these companies with jeff zuck him at there is video of the Central Intelligence agency receiving a metal. Hes connected to langley. There was another top official at the cia that said americans make it easy for them to obtain information on them. Stop using facebook. Find them. Hit them in their wallet. But im not for regulation. We have no privacy. Face reality. From that wall street journal editorial, they argue American Giants operate in a Global Economy with emerging competitors, especially from china. Breaking up u. S. Tech companies would be a gift. Alibaba, baidu, tencent, and others want to elbow into the data club in europe. Abouthould think twice his mental and u. S. Firms that invest heavily in Artificial Intelligence and can compete worldwide. Your thoughts on whether or not more regulation is needed of these Big Tech Companies . Yesterday, President Trump sent out a tweet on this issue saying that if congress doesnt bring fairness to big tech, which they shouldve done years ago, i will do it myself with executive orders. Washington has been all talk and no action for years. The people of our country are sick and tired of it. President s on the tweet, trump moves to hold social Media Companies liable if they alter or editorialize users speech. From the article, they say the Commerce Department made it clear that social Media Companies can be held viable if they do that. The petition requested that the ftc clarify the cure ration measures. Curation measures. They say president trouble continue to fight against censorship of americans online. Republicans, jim jordan of ohio, questioned a group of ceos about what he sees as political bias against conservatives. Is google going to tailor features to help joe biden in the 2020 election . Work byproach our supporting both campaigns. Political ads are an important part of free speech. We engage with campaigns according to law and work on a nonpartisan basis. Can you assure you want to tell your you wont tailor your features to help joe biden . We support the work the campaigns do. I understand that. We all do all kinds of that outreach and communication. Can you today assure americans that you will not tailor your features to help one candidate over another . My concern is you helping joe biden over President Trump. Any work todo politically tilt one way or the other. But you did it in 2016. 2016 any mail in email and 2016 that was widely circulated and went public. Multiculturalur marketing talks about the silent donation google made to the clinton campaign. And you applauded her work. Im just curious if you did it in 16, despite the fact that you did it in 16, President Trump won. Inant you to not do that 2020. I appreciate your concern. We did not find any evidence of such activity. And i took the opportunity to reinforce to the company that even the appearance could be improper, so we have clearly communicated to our employees that any personal political activity is their right but it needs to happen on their own time and resources. Everyone can campaign for who they want. What they cant do is configure your features to help one candidate over another. Host from yesterdays hearing on capitol hill with those tech ceos from facebook, apple, amazon, and google. Should they be regulated by the federal government . F you say yes, 202 7488000 if you disagree, 202 7488001. The subcommittee has been investigating these four companies and last year. They are expecting to give guidance to federal regulators and congress to act on reining in these companies. Judy, you say yes and alabama. Good morning. Caller good morning. Host go ahead. Caller i am tired of my stuff getting took off facebook and amazon. If i try to put anything for President Trump. Host it gets taken off . Why do you think that is . Caller they silence it because they are trying to keep us from having the election and winning. Host do you get a reason why