amazon facebook apple google executives to testify before congress technologyfour top tech ceos will testify in antitrust inquiry panel says hearing this month would be a central moment in the continuing backlash against the power of amazon facebook alphabet and applecreditanna moneymakerthe new york timesjuly 1 2020washington the chief executives of four of the worlds biggest technology companies will appear before congress this month as part of its sweeping antitrust investigation into their market power according to the committee running the inquiry setting up a highprofile faceoff between the companies and skeptical lawmakersjeff bezos of amazon tim cook of apple mark zuckerberg of facebook and sundar pichai of alphabet which owns google and youtube will appear at the hearing said shadawn reddicksmith a spokeswoman for the house judiciary committee which is said to be nearing the end of its investigationthe date and whether the executives will appear in person or virtually as has become common during the coronavirus pandemic are still being discussed ms reddicksmith saidthe hearing will allow lawmakers to ask the executives about accusations of antitrust abuses at their companies all of which are the focus of investigations by federal regulators or state attorneys general the executives are also likely to face questions about other issues like amazons treatment of its warehouse workers or the spread of hate speech on facebook and youtubethe hearing would be a central moment in the continuing backlash against the power of major tech companies prosecutors at the justice department are preparing a possible antitrust case against google this year after an inquiry homed in on its control of advertising technology and the search engine market the federal trade commission is investigating amazons business and facebooks acquisition of smaller companiesa number of state attorneys general are investigating similar issues and could pursue their own actions or work with federal authoritiesit will be the first time that mr bezos will testify before congress mr zuckerberg mr pichai and mr cook have appeared in front of capitol hill lawmakers beforealphabet facebook and amazon declined to comment on the record about the committees plans an apple spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for commentthe plans for the hearing were reported earlier by kara swisher a contributing opinion writer for the new york timesthe lawmakers investigation has focused on different aspects of each business they have raised many questions about amazons treatment of brands that sell products on its ecommerce site much of the attention on google has been on its lucrative ad business with apple lawmakers have asked about how its app store terms hurt developers their questions to facebook have been largely about its use of past acquisitions to cement its dominance in social mediaapple amazon alphabet and facebook are four of the five biggest tech companies by market value the fifth microsoft has not been subjected to the same public scrutiny in recent years it faced a landmark antitrust case a generation ago