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What we just learned about Big Tech’s future

Good morning! This Thursday, we look at what's next after the tech hearing, the documents that tell us more than testimony did, and why even the richest people on Earth can't make their video calls look good.
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In the moment, there were parts of Wednesday's hearing that felt brutal. Jeff Bezos wilting under pressure from Matt Gaetz and saying Amazon should do better than use the Southern Poverty Law Center; Sundar Pichai repeatedly not having good answers as to why Google deserved to be entrusted with so much user data. The members of the antitrust subcommittee were remarkably prepared and ready to pounce.
But the folks who prepare CEOs like these for hearings like these say there's really only one goal in a Congressional hearing: Get out alive. Don't say anything that'll get you in trouble, that'll stick to you forever either in the court of opinion or in an actual courtroom.
If you want to dig deep into what we can take away from the hearing, I have two Protocol stories for you. Here's the whole crew on what we learned today about the Democrats' case, and Emily Birnbaum and Issie Lapowsky on what comes next in the antitrust saga. We also have a good rundown of the questions the CEOs didn't answer. And our friend Nancy Scola at POLITICO has a good piece on which parts of the hearing might stick around after all.
What jumped out to me more than anything was that there's a fundamental, maybe unsolvable disconnect between the tech companies and the regulators. The tech CEOs are saying, we're doing our best, we're huge, of course there are going to be bad things, but the bad stories you're hearing are the exception and not the rule.
It's also clear that when we talk about how large these companies are, we're really talking about two separate things. There are questions of market share and market cap, the sway these companies have in the world. But also, do these companies just have too many employees?
I don't think there's much the CEOs will have to answer for or change immediately as a result of Wednesday's hearing. But it's clear that an era is coming that will require more transparency, more checks and balances, and more proof beyond just saying "we're trying our hardest." And the CEOs who testified are going to have to lead the charge, whether they want to or not.
Far more compelling (and in many cases damning) than the hearing itself was all the evidence the subcommittee put out after the hearing was over. Starting with the conversations just before Facebook bought Instagram, a billion-dollar deal the committee was very interested in.
There's much more in the documents, too, which will be interesting to anyone who wants to know what it's like in the room where it happens:
Ultimately, documents like these will be the legacy of these hearings: They're what really illuminates how the tech industry works. And if you run a tech company? I'd be thinking hard about your email policy right now, and how you communicate important and unpleasant information with your team.
If you're in the mood for some not-light reading, scroll through the 113 pages of Apple correspondence. It's good stuff. (I even make an appearance — first person to send me a screenshot gets a Protocol mug.)
Sorry, last thing on the hearing. Can we talk about everyone's video-chat setup? Obviously Wednesday was a rough day for Webex, between the delays and the outage that caused a 10-minute recess. But also, for four dudes worth a couple hundred billion dollars, you'd think they'd have better video-chat rigs.
It was also surprisingly odd to see these four men – who are known for their t-shirts, bomber jackets and extremely strong vest game — actually wearing suits. But forget the sartorial advice. Get a good light, a nice microphone, and a big stack of important-seeming books, and you'll blow Congress out of the water.
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Before Wednesday's hearing, Kevin Mayer made his first public statement as TikTok chief, and it's a doozy:
On Protocol: Intuit CTO Marianna Tessel said AI could have the same effect on busywork as the spreadsheet once did:
On Protocol: AR glasses are coming sooner than you think, Niantic COO Megan Quinn said:
Think Tesla's sky-high stock is a fluke? Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess thinks otherwise:
That's the percentage of Snap employees who are Black, according to the company's first-ever diversity report. (Which it released mid-hearing, maybe hoping people wouldn't notice.) The report is rough in general: Women make up 32.9% of Snap's workforce, and only 16.1% of its tech teams. The company's senior leadership team is 74.2% white. The company laid out plans to help improve those numbers, but acknowledged there's a lot left to do.
If the hearing had been 5.5 hours of this, I would have watched it twice.
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Today's Source Code was written by David Pierce, with help from Shakeel Hashim. Thoughts, questions, tips? Send them to david@protocol.com, or our tips line, tips@protocol.com. Enjoy your day, see you tomorrow.
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