they did not believe that cigarettes were addictivehouse lawmakers who had opened an investigation into the tech companies in june 2019 made the most of it representative jerry nadler democrat of new york confronted mr zuckerberg with the ceos own emails saying they showed a plot to take out a young competitor representative jim jordan republican of ohio said google was biased and asked mr pichai whether the company would change its products to help elect joseph r biden for presidentin one of the sharpest exchanges representative pramila jayapal a washington democrat confronted mr bezos on accusations that an amazon lawyer had lied to the committee about how the company develops its own products she asked him to answer whether it misused data with a yes or noi cant answer that question yes or no said mr bezos appearing rattledyet while the hearing was ripe with theater any impact will be limited by antitrust laws that were created a century ago and that are imperfect for corralling internet firms since the 1980s enforcement officials have used the notion of consumer welfare as the predominant test for antitrust violations generally meaning that if prices are not going up the markets are most likely competitive enough the tech giants have generally not driven up prices of digital services or consumer goods many do not charge at all for services like google maps or instagramwhile democrats at the hearing indicated they were more inclined to change antitrust law representative jim sensenbrenner republican of wisconsin said he did not think the laws needed to change ultimately congress doesnt have the power to break up the companiesstill the proceedings provided fuel to other investigations of the tech companies by the justice department the federal trade commission and state attorneys general the justice department is expected to soon announce charges against google accusing it of abusing its dominance in online advertising people with knowledge of the investigation have said the ftc is preparing to question mr zuckerberg under oath in its investigation of facebooks grip over social networking and acquisitions of nascent rivalsthis is a critical juncture in how the washington policy clash with the titans of silicon valley unfolds said gene kimmelman a former justice department antitrust official and a special adviser to the consumer advocacy group public knowledgeregulators around the world are also moving to limit the power of the tech giants europe has led the charge with antitrust investigations and margrethe vestager the regions top trustbuster recently vowed to take a harder line on the companies on wednesday turkey passed legislation giving its government sweeping new powers to regulate social media contentthe hearing on wednesday was a turnabout from just a few years ago when facebook google amazon and apple were emblems of national pride for their innovation and growth but the expanding reach of the four which are involved in everything from smartphones to ecommerce to digital payments and their stumbles in misinformation privacy election interference and labor issues have increasingly raised