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Google, Apple, Amazon and Facebook at Congress antitrust hearing: How to watch

The tech titans will appear before a House committee Tuesday starting at 11 a.m. PT/2 p.m. ET.

Ian Sherr Contributor and Former Editor at Large / News
Ian Sherr (he/him/his) grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, so he's always had a connection to the tech world. As an editor at large at CNET, he wrote about Apple, Microsoft, VR, video games and internet troubles. Aside from writing, he tinkers with tech at home, is a longtime fencer -- the kind with swords -- and began woodworking during the pandemic.
Ian Sherr
The US Capitol Building

Tech's biggest companies will be appearing before lawmakers to discuss antitrust issues.

Getty Images

Congress on Tuesday will be tackling one of the biggest questions facing the tech industry in decades: Have companies like Apple, Google, Facebook and Amazon become so big that they need to be broken up?

Already, the battle lines have been drawn. The tech industry has begun to push back while some presidential candidates, like Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, are arguing in favor of breakups.

"Today's big tech companies have [too much power over] our economy, our society and our democracy,"  Warren, a Democrat, wrote in March.

The hearing before the US House Committee on the Judiciary is called "Online Platform and Market Power, Part 2: Innovation and Entrepreneurship." 

When

July 16 at 11 a.m. PT / 2 p.m. ET.

Where

The hearing is likely to be streamed on YouTube, a link for which will either show up on the committee's account or on its hearing announcement page.

What we can expect

The company CEOs aren't testifying, so there's little chance of an iconic showdown moment. Still, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle want to punish tech giants, but few agree on how. Another issue is education about how tech works. Last year, one lawmaker asked Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg how his company makes money. "Senator, we run ads," he said. 

Watch this: Facebook and Twitter on Capitol Hill