Antitrust Laws VS Facebook, Amazon, Google and Apple!

The House Judiciary Committee has set up a congressional meeting with the Executives of Amazon, Facebook, Google and Apple set for next week to discuss the controlling streak the online companies have on the market.

The hearing scheduled for July 16 at Capitol Hill is part of a probe investigation set up by the Congress to examine the enormous power wielded by these 4 giant corporations.

In a similar vein, the executive arm has also initiated antitrust probes with the Justice Department. Based on the recent scandals involving a breach, exposure or even abuse of user data when it falls into the wrong hands, more attention is drawn to the technology companies in a bid to provide lasting and effective solutions.

Facebook, a major culprit as with the Cambridge Analytica scandal is expected to pay an estimated $5 billion in fines for obtaining millions of user’s data without their explicit permission.

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IBM, however, has recently proposed a new set of changes to the law (CDA 230 that protects internet companies from liabilities from user-generated contributions on their platform.

Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA 230), which exempts developers of online services from lawsuits stemming from user-posted content such as restaurant reviews or social media photos.

According to Ryan Hagemann, IBM’s government and regulatory affairs technology executive said that companies need to also be held accountable legally when it comes to moderating online content.

Many lawmakers have argued that the CDA 230 has been misinterpreted so much that there is room to avoid responsibility for user’s action on technology platforms.