CEOs Should Address 'Anticompetitive Platform Privilege' at Hearing: Khanna

Pichai and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg are to testify (see 2007070043). Khanna isn't a Judiciary Committee member. The chiefs should answer how their companies aren’t using their “platforms to suppress competition” within the tech sector, he said during an appearance on C-SPAN’s The Communicators that was to be televised over the weekend. There needs to be “a nuanced conversation” on Capitol Hill about tech competition that goes beyond saying “‘let’s break up a company’” like Apple or Google, instead asking “what can we do to make sure that other companies can compete, that” tech giants “aren’t charging too much for the use of their own platforms, that they aren’t hurting competition,” Khanna said. He believes there needs to be a more “nuanced antitrust framework” within the federal government, and an update should look at factors beyond “consumer welfare,” including a company’s impact on jobs and communities. Major transactions need “be looked at with great scrutiny,” including what companies are doing on giving competitors access to their platforms, Khanna said. He believes there should be “extra scrutiny” on major tech companies’ activities during the pandemic, and those firms “should limit themselves to more or less organic growth and should not be trying to expand their footprint.” Policymakers and tech companies should have a “very thoughtful view of speech,” including whether content is “suppressing the vote” in the upcoming presidential election, is “leading to violence” or is “making it harder for others to have equality” on a platform, Khanna said.