Once, big technology companies were held in awe in Washington. How that has changed. Most noteworthy about this week’s showdown between bosses of Apple, Amazon, Alphabet and Facebook and the House antitrust subcommittee was how the chiefs found themselves bashed by both sides of the political spectrum. Unlike the clumsy show of 2018, when Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg appeared before Congress, lawmakers this time were well-prepared. Armed with 1.3m pages of documents unearthed in their 13-month probe of Big Tech, they landed some verbal blows. Since the investigation may shape future political efforts to curb the tech giants’ influence, the CEOs have reason to be nervous.
曾几何时，大型科技公司在华盛顿受到敬畏。这种情况发生了多么巨大的变化。在本周苹果(Apple)、亚马逊(Amazon)、Alphabet和Facebook的老板们与众议院反垄断小组委员会的摊牌中，最值得注意的是，这些老总们发现自己受到政坛两翼的猛烈抨击。与Facebook的马克•扎克伯格(Mark Zuckerberg) 2018年在国会作证时议员们的笨拙表现不同的是，这一次他们准备得很充分。凭借在对大型科技公司长达13个月的调查中收集的130万页文件，议员们对这些科技公司说出了一些犀利的话。由于这项调查可能会影响遏制科技巨头影响力的未来政治行动，这些首席执行官们有理由感到紧张。