Apple and Facebook spin antitrust claims: We’re misunderstood

In late July, a Congressional subcommittee successfully compelled four major tech company CEOs to formally answer questions about allegedly monopolistic business practices — a public spectacle marred only by COVID-19-related isolation of the attendees. Amazon, Facebook, and Google faced some of the heaviest questioning, but Apple certainly didn’t escape notice, as it was peppered with evidence that its App Store was abusing its increasingly dominant position within the software industry.

The “Online Platforms and Market Power” hearing matters because it paved the way for formal antitrust actions against four of the world’s largest companies, technology-focused or otherwise. Individually and collectively, these companies reach billions of people, with an outsized impact on the hardware, software, and services enterprises and end users rely on. While all four of the tech giants portray themselves as ambitious good actors, their actions certainly have negative consequences.