Grilled by Lawmakers, Big Tech Turns Up the Gaslight

Grilled by Lawmakers, Big Tech Turns Up the Gaslight

The Shift

It is less clear that tech executives' strategy of evasive answers will continue to work now that lawmakers have begun doing their homework.

Credit...Pablo Rochat

July 30, 2020Updated 12:05 p.m. ET

When Mark Zuckerberg appeared in front of Congress two years ago, the Facebook chief executive's memorable retort to a clueless questioner was "Senator, we run ads.“ After Wednesday's marathon appearance by Mr. Zuckerberg and three other tech titans at a House hearing on competition in the tech industry, a more fitting quote might be "Congresswoman, I'm not sure what you would mean by 'threaten.'“

That was Mr. Zuckerberg's evasive answer to a question asked by Representative Pramila Jayapal, a Democrat from Washington, about whether Facebook had ever threatened to squash smaller competitors by copying their products if they wouldn't let Facebook acquire them.

It was a good question with a clear-cut answer. Facebook's copy-and-crush approach has been well documented for years, and Ms. Jayapal brought even more receipts “” previously undisclosed messages in which Mr. Zuckerberg issued thinly veiled threats to Kevin Systrom, the co-founder of Instagram, about what would happen to his company if he refused to sell.

An honest Mr. Zuckerberg might have replied, "Yes, Congresswoman, like most successful tech companies, we