Congress questions America’s wealthiest men today on supressing competition

Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Tim Cook of Apple, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, and Sundar Pichai of Google’s parent company, Alphabet, will testify today at a House hearing on whether their companies stifle competition.

The questioning will be broadcast live.

On Wednesday, the tech sector becomes the latest industry to sit in the glaring spotlight of a high-profile congressional hearing when the CEOs of four of the biggest companies — Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google — testify together in a live, televised hearing, reports the New York Times.

The Four CEOs will have to face hours of questioning from members of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law about whether they hold monopoly-like grips on the digital economy and whether their companies should be broken up or in some way contained.

People concerned about the power of the tech industry said they believe the hearing could be a historic moment to draw new attention to old ideas about trust busting.

Teachout, one of the most visible critics of Big Tech's power speaking to the CBS, said that it's been decades since Congress has paid this much attention to the concentration of economic and political power in the hands of a few businesses. She said the hearing comes at a time when the public is thirsting for some action.

"We're at a different moment, where people are ready to shake up the basics of who has power," she said, speaking to NBC.

Within three decades, Amazon, Facebook and Google have grown rapidly from rambunctious startups to world-striding behemoths. Along with Apple, an older company that once faced bankruptcy but has since become one of the most profitable companies in the world, the companies consistently rank among the most valuable corporations, according to NBC report

The way the world wills see these companies in future will depend on these hearings just as the perception of the tech world is also in the balance — 72 percent of U.S. adults say social media companies have too much power and influence in politics, according to a Pew Research Center survey Released last week.