And in europe young people could be contributing to the resurgence of coronavirus, the new warning from the World Health Organization. And a new law for turkey giving the government sweeping new powers over social media platforms well look into the motives. We will be talking to bbc turkish. Welcome. Now this hasnt happened before. Four of the most powerful people in technology are giving evidence to the us congress. They are jeff bezos of amazon, tim cook of apple, Mark Zuckerberg of facebook and Sundar Pichai of google. And the question at the heart of all this is whether these companies are simply too big. Theres no dispute that they are big. Together these four companies represent 5 trillion within the us economy. The New York Times describes the hearing as a bizarre spectacle four men who run Companies Worth nearly 5 trillion combined and who include two of the worlds richest individuals primed to argue that their businesses are really not that powerful after all. The chairman of the committee doesnt see it that way. Simply put, they have too much power. This power staves off new forms of competition, creativity, and innovation. How these tech bosses stand up to scrutiny could be a defining moment in theirfuture relationship with government. They have never all been quizzed together. Lets start with their Opening Statements which were released ahead of the hearing jeff bezos writes. Mark zuckerberg said. Tim cook wrote. Sundar pichai from alphabet, googles parent company, told the committee. That was released to the head of time. Ahead of time. Now to the hearing. It was done via video link and Sundar Pichai was questioned first his company is dealing with multiple antitrust allegations over googles Online Search dominance. It controls about 90 of the Search Market and is accused of stealing content. Heres one exchange between Sundar Pichar and the chairman. The evidence that we collected shows that google pursued a multipronged attack. First, google begin to steal other webpages content. For example in 2010, google stole restaurant reviews from yelp to bootstrap its own rival local search business. Mr pichar, do you know how google responded when yelp asked you to stop stealing their reviews . Well, ill tell you. Our investigation shows that googles response was to threaten to delist yelp entirely. In other words, the choice google gave yelp was, let us steal your content or effectively disappear from the web. Mr pichar, isnt that anti competitive . Congressman, when i run the company, im really focused on giving users what they want, we conduct ourselves to the highest standard. Happy to engage and understand the specifics and answer your questions. Next to jeff bezos hes the worlds richest man. And he has never testified before either house before. Amazon is accused of anti competitive behaviour by promoting its own products above third party sellers. The Company Controls about 38 of the e retail market. Heres whatjeff bezos has said. There are not 1. 7 million small and medium size businesses selling on amazon. The trust Customers Put in us every amazon. The trust Customers Put in us every day has allowed amazon to create more jobs us every day has allowed amazon to create morejobs in the United States over the past decade than any other company. Hundreds of thousands ofjobs other company. Hundreds of thousands of jobs across 42 states. If youre wondering why we are not seeing mr bates is a little bigger, that was just the feed we were giving by congress. Mr bezos. Next Mark Zuckerberg. Rivals accuse facebook of being a monopoly power in the world of social networking. I think with hindsight it looks obvious that instagram would have reached a scala has today but at the time it was far from obvious. This was the response. Facebook so instagram at the time as a top contender. They purchase it. This is exact to the type of antitrust legislation that was created to prevent. Tim cook next, hes the ceo of apple. Its been accused of unfairly using its clout over its app store to block rivals and charge high commissions. Heres what hes said. We have fierce competition at the developers side and the customer side which is essentially, its so competitive, i would describe it as a street fight for market share in the smartphone business. This is all about power and influence and of course its political. Lets hear from republican jim jordan. Illjust cut to the chase bg tech is out to get conservatives. Thats not a suspicion, thats not a hunch thats a fact. July 20th, 2020, google removes the home pages of breitbart and the daily caller. Just last night, we learned that google has censored breitbart so much, traffic has declined 99 . Barbara how do you assess these exchanges so far . I think using the democrats on the committee have come armed with a lot of information about what they believe, how they believe these companies are violating antitrust laws and how they are really stifling competition and they have come with a lot of information because they have been doing an investigation for about a year about this. What struck me about all these changes was the one with Mr Zuckerberg because it sort of encapsulated the situation. You had him having to fend his acquisition of instagram, he was asked if he brought it up rather than compete with it and that is how you saw him neutralised at, he had used those words apparently and did not deny that but said it was a bad acquisition that has really made instagram into the company that it is. The regulatory powers of the time said it was not illegal, so you saw the two kinds of approaches between the congresspeople and the tech titans. And you also saw one other thing there which was more questions about the misinformation and hate speech and how he deals with that on his platform and i think many congresspeople are worried about that but this is a hearing about competition and in orderfor them to move on it hearing about competition and in order for them to move on it they need to get the detail about how these companies are harming consumers and rifles and so on and if they dont focus on that, it might not get the points that they need. And arrivals. Might not get the points that they need. And arrivals. Can congress do anything about the concerns were hearing primarily from the democrats oi hearing primarily from the democrats or is this about us hearing these tech leaders put under pressure on these positions was mac yes congress can do something, they can create new antitrust laws. And that is what this is about. This is the latest development in this year long investigation they have been going through and the question is do the antitrust laws and anti competition policies, are they good enough to deal with any overreach by these giant companies or do they have to draw up new was . There are some on the committee that believe they do have to draw up new laws. In terms of this hearing to have the four of these men together probably weakens their ability to actually get something hard and concrete that will help their case because there are different issues and complexities between the companies. But having said that, it is still a public spectacle and momentum is pa rt public spectacle and momentum is part of this and with a public spectacle they might be able to get the momentum that will lead in the direction of greater regulation and as far as the text tightens themselves, their interest in participating in this is to argue strongly against regulation but whatever Congress Tries to do they wa nt to whatever Congress Tries to do they want to be part of that and shaping it so this is part of that. Barbara thank you very much indeed. She was referencing misinformation about covid 19. Lets bring you up to date on the fire is in the us. Virus in the us. Nearly 1300 people died of coronavirus in the United States on tuesday. Thats the biggest daily total since may. And the overall death toll in america will be 150,000. Americas top Infectious Diseases expert, anthony fauci, has been a centralfigure in fighting covid 19 in the us, and hes been speaking to the bbcs katty kay. You have set before, doctor fauci that you during the course of your career have spent decades preparing for this possibility of a pandemic like covid 19. When you were preparing for Something Like this, did you ever imagine that the politics would make it difficult to effectively manage this kind of situation, that the politics would get so mixed up in this . No i did not. Obviously when youre doing with things that involve politicians, there is always a bit of political manoeuvring. We have seen that in almost every outbreak but it had been minor and didnt impact what we were doing with regard to response. But i think its iio regard to response. But i think its no secret from looking at the situation in the United States that there is a considerable degree of political divisiveness to a level that everyone admits. You dont need me to make that declaration. I think anyone, even with those who have more experience and more ability to observe and make judgement on that, that this is a very unusual situation of political divisiveness in this country. President trump does not appear to see things the same way as dr fauci. This is what he had to say at a White House Briefing yesterday. He has got a very good Approval Rating and i like that, it is good because remember he is working for this administration, he is working with us, john. We could have gotten other people, we could have gotten somebody else, it didnt have to be dr fauci. He is working for our administration and for the most part we have done pre much what he and others, doctor birx, who are terrific, recommended. And hes got this high Approval Rating so why dont i have a high Approval Rating with respect and the administration with respect and the administration with respect and the administration with respect to the virus . Meeting Approval Ratings aside, lets talk to katty kay is live in dc. He would make a good dipper met, didnt he when he . He would make a good dipper met, didnt he when he . I think he is ina good. Didnt he when he . I think he is in a good. We focus on the masks, hydroxychloroquine, vaccines and that kind of thing but it is worth asking him about the politics because he has been put in this political situation which is making it harderfor him to do hisjob. I asked him about the president seeming to endorsejust asked him about the president seeming to endorse just as recently as yesterday hydroxychloroquine, i asked about the present retreating somebody that said you dont need to wear masks. Doctor fauci told me he thought that wasnt helpful and at the end of the interview i asked him how he is doing, he has been going at this for five months nonstop 15, 60, 17 hour days. He at this for five months nonstop 15, 60,17 hour days. He said it is stressful because of all these issues to do with politics. He is trying to do hisjob, the medical side of things and manage the politics both of very important because he needs to be as effective as possible. During the course of my half hour with him, what i heard was quite a lot of frustration with people being lax about the rules but also with the split was situation he is dealing with. Aside from the political drama, he says on the full his administration is following dr faucis guidance . Is that fair, do you think dr fauci would categorise it in the same way . I think he would make the distinction between the white house and the individual states and what he told me is that several states have jumped the gun. That the medical experts at the white house on the White House Task force came up with very clear guidelines on how america should reopen after lock and several states he said he was likely to name them and that several states ignore those guidelines and opened up too early which is why we are in the position we are in. It is interesting i asked him at the beginning of the interview if we had been talking backin interview if we had been talking back in april and you had described to me the situation in america at the end ofjuly, would it look like this . And he said no, this is a lot worse than he thought it was going to be. You are referencing something President Trump said yesterday. Lets show everybody watching this. President trump has continued to promote the anti malaria drug, hydroxychloroquine. Despite the World Health Organization and the Us National Institutes of health having found no evidence that the drug is useful for covid 19 patients. It can also have serious side effects if misused. This is what President Trump told reporters. Many doctors think its extremely good and some people dont, some people i think it has very political. I happen to believe in it. I took it for a 14 day period. And im here, right . Im here. I happen to think it works in the early stages, in front line medical people believe that too, some, many, and so we will take a look at it. The president say many front line staff, i do think that is a fair representation from anything we have heard from doctors around the world. President trump has also defended his retweet of a video featuring a doctor backing the use of the drug. The same doctor in the past has talked about using dna from aliens to make medicines. All of which led to an exchange for the ages. The woman you said was a great doctor in that video that you retweeted last night said that masks dont work and theres a cure for covid 19, both of which experts say is not true. Shes also made videos saying that doctors make medicine using dna from aliens and that they are trying to create a vaccine to make you immune from becoming religious. Maybe its not but i can tell you this. She was on air along with many other doctors that were big fans of hydroxychloroquine, and i thought she was very impressive in the sense that from where she came, i dont know which country she comes from. But she said that shes had tremendous success with hundreds of different patients, and i thought her voice was an important voice but i know nothing about her. She says masks dont work. Last week. 0k, thank you very much everybody. Thank you. And with that the president was gone and here was what auntie fauci thought. When the president as he did again yesterday retweets things from people who say you dont need to wear a mask, how unhelpful is that from a medical perspective . Well, you know, i mean. This issue of tweaking and retreating is something ive never understood or gotten involved in but i can tell you, you have to say it is not helpful if people get signals about not Wearing Masks when we are trying to get people to universally wear masks. Tweeting and re tweeting. People to universally wear masks. Tweeting and retweeting. So, you would ask the president not to do that . That is not the way it works. I think my feeling about what we should do with masks is very, very clearly understood by everyone including those in the white house. What about hydroxychloroquine . And i ask you about this because it has come back into the news because the president yesterday evening in the white house stood there and said he believes in it and that it is safe and again seemed to be touting this drug. Is the president right . Again, it is not productive or helpful for me to be making judges on right or wrong but what i can say is what i have said all along that the overwhelming body of data from trials that were well run, randomised placebo controlled trials, indicate that hydroxychloroquine is not effective in treating coronavirus disease or covid 19. Katty kayjoins me again. I think when im talking to you i had to step back here and think what are the state of affairs we have it where you are doing an interview with the leading scientists uncover 19 and yet to ask about the president referencing doctors who referenced previously aliens, this is an unusual place we have gotten to. We are in the dna from aliens phase of this presidency which is pretty reared, right . She has also suggested that gynaecological problems can come from having dreams about having six with demons. I mean, its bizarre. Having sex with dimas was at the president did not like it because he left immediately as he was being asked about her. I pushed doctor fauci on this and he is not very comfortable talking about the politics of this and the differences he has with the president. But the reason i wanted to push him on this is because dr faucihas to push him on this is because dr fauci has a 65 Approval Rating in this country, very few people have that. There is so much misinformation about this disease out there on the internet. The president says one thing, some of the doctors say another thing. Here you have somebody who has a high degree of trust from the American Public and to some extent having his voice clarifying the issues around masks, the issues around hydroxychloroquine and i think is useful when the president might be saying Something Else and i wanted to ask dr fauci in the sense dont you have the duty to speak out because the American Public does trust you at a time when they are getting a lot of misinformation and there is not a lot of trusts and other institutions . He doesnt necessarily want to talk about it but he does want to make his position clear. His position is that masks are helpful, that hydroxychloroquine for the treatment of covid 19 is not helpful and has not been proven to be helpful, and he was very categorical that he has not misled the American Public on either of those issues. Thanks for joining us on outside source, fascinating interview, appreciate you coming on to talk to us about her. We switch to europe. In europe young