Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Alphabet Inc. CEO Sundar Pichai and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will testify before the House Antitrust Subcommittee.
I didn't want to make a new thread for this as I know it will just devolve into the same shit with a new title. I don't want this to be in P&R instead of "culture and media" It is more about culture as a whole than politics.
It's very interesting to see congress, both sides, united (for different reasons). Both sides are very outspoken about how monopolistic these four companies are. and that directly influences literally every aspect of the entirety of the internet (and business in general). Even so far as to consider googles cornering of ads in the buying of and selling of, insider trading.
And the consistent lack of answers and accountability is staggering. albeit not unexpected. I don't think there has been even one honest answer the entire time. Standard not recalling, disagreeing on merit and "refusing" to answer based on wording. "following up" another big theme of "not answering". The full gambit from deflecting to flat out lying.
The question in regard to "not using slave labor or selling products created by slave labor" I almost lost an eyeball I eyerolled so hard. Same vein as counterfeits etc.
I think that while everything discussed in the 7 hours of testimony is all things that you as a consumer SHOULD already know, it's a good learning opportunity.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpPHLh7cI0g
tl;dw is that Apple FaceBook Google and Amazon are using their presence/standing to effectively destroy "the American dream" (insofar as to carve your own section if you chose to do so).
In so many words, it is impossible to compete against them, and if you managed to even become a blip on the radar you would be crushed (undercut), blacklisted/shadowbanned etc from listings, threatened with "clones" or bought outright. And that their access to mountains of your data and competitor data make them unstoppable.
