Amazon. Apple. Facebook. Google. Microsoft. Which one of these companies is different than the others?
If you answered Microsoft, you’re right.
Microsoft has managed to stay out of the U.S. government’s crosshairs, while Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google are squarely in it. For a year, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has been looking into whether those companies violated anti-trust laws by using their market dominance to illegally reduce competition. More recently, Congress, which has often been loath to criticize Big Tech, pulled in Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Google CEO Sundar Pichai for a tongue lashing. The hearings by the House Judiciary Committee’s antitrust subcommittee were brutal – and likely a forerunner of legislation to come that will curb those companies’ power.
How brutal was it? Here’s what Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) and chairman of the antitrust subcommittee had to say: “As gatekeepers to the digital economy, these platforms enjoy the power to pick winners and losers, shake down small businesses and enrich themselves while choking off competitors. Our founders would not bow before a king. Nor should we bow before the emperors of the online economy.”
Meanwhile, relative choir boy Microsoft watched from the sidelines, a smile on its face. Or was that a smirk?
