US antitrust regulator may question Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg: Report

Amid growing mistrust between the government and Facebook, United States antitrust regulators might question the California-based social media company’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his right-hand executive to find out if the network violated monopoly laws. The Wall Street Journal report released on July 17 even cited unnamed sources closely involved in the matter saying that the US Federal Trade Commission is planning to take sworn testimony from Mark Zuckerberg and of Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg. This comes as a part of a yearlong investigation to determine whether the social network has abused its dominance in the market.

According to an international media agency, the FTC declined to discuss the report. However, while responding to an inquiry by media agency, a Facebook spokesperson has said that the company ‘looks forward’ to share their views about the landscape of competition in the market along with company’s technology leaders. During the upcoming hearing in front of the Congress, the spokesperson elaborated, that the company would showcase how the innovations ‘provides choices for consumers’.

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Tech giants scheduled for hearing on July 27

Meanwhile, the leaders of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google are scheduled to testify during an antitrust investigation hearing at the United States House Committee on the Judiciary on July 27. The hearing comes while there has been an increase in the complaints about the tech platforms in the country to have dominated the key economic sectors and pledge by certain activists as well as politicians to weaken the SiliconValey giants.

According to reports, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Apple CEO Time Cook, Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Zuckerberg can either appear virtually as per their wish, according to the joint statement released by Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler and Antitrust subcommittee chairman David Cicilline.

"Since last June, the subcommittee has been investigating the dominance of a small number of digital platforms and the adequacy of existing antitrust laws and enforcement," Nadler and Cicilline said.

"Given the central role these corporations play in the lives of the American people, it is critical that their CEOs are forthcoming."

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Inputs: Agency/ Image: AP