Blog

Rep. Jim Jordan, the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, on Wednesday helped kick off an antitrust hearing with the CEOs of tech company giants by saying that “big tech” is out to get conservatives.

“I’ll just cut to the chase: Big tech’s out to get conservatives,” said Mr. Jordan, Ohio Republican. “That’s not a suspicion. That’s not a hunch. That’s a fact.”

Mr. Jordan accused Google of censoring and targeting the websites of Breitbart and The Daily Caller, among other transgressions of tech companies.

“I haven’t even mentioned Twitter, who we actually invited,” he said.

Mr. Jordan had tried to get Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to testify at the hearing as well, to no avail.

He said Twitter “shadow-banned” two judiciary committee members several years ago.

Mr. Jordan said Mr. Dorsey blamed it on a “glitch.”

“I mean, if I had a nickel for every time I heard it was just a glitch, I wouldn’t be as wealthy as our witnesses, but I’d be doing all right,” he said.

Mr. Jordan spoke at a Judiciary subcommittee hearing that is featuring testimony from Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Apple’s Tim Cook and Google’s Sundar Pichai.

Rep. David Cicilline, the chairman of the antitrust subcommittee, said the companies serve as “critical arteries of commerce and communications.”

But he said their market dominance has dangerous implications.

“As gatekeepers of the digital economy, these platforms enjoy the power to pick winners and losers, to shake down small businesses and enrich themselves while choking off competitors,” said Mr. Cicilline, Rhode Island Democrat.

Mr. Zuckerberg said Facebook started with nothing and worked its way up.

“As I understand our laws, companies aren’t bad just because they are big,” Mr. Zuckerberg said in his opening statement. “Many large companies that fail to compete cease to exist.”

Click here to read article.