Aug 27, 2020 - Politics & Policy

McCarthy: Congress is more worried about Big Tech than a year ago

A screenshot of Kevin McCarthy next to Axios' Mike Allen

Axios co-founder Mike Allen (l) and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.

Congress is more worried about Big Tech now than it was a year ago, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) told Axios on Thursday during a virtual event.

What he's saying: "Their power is only getting larger, and in the world of COVID, it's getting larger because they have more influence. But I don't think they're forthcoming on a lot, I have real concerns on what Google has been doing."

Why it matters: The CEOs of Google, Facebook, Amazon and Apple were grilled last month by a House panel probing possible antitrust litigation. The companies also face investigations by the Justice Department, state attorneys general and the Federal Trade Commission.

Details: "They're doing worse than they were before ... they now have Democrats and Republicans very concerned," McCarthy said.

  • "I've warned them time and again, you're going to hit a point where people are going to say you're a monopoly," he said, referencing how much search traffic runs through Google.
  • He argued that Google's hold over search traffic means the company "can control what people see and what people say."
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