Updated at 12:16 p.m. ET
Do Facebook, Google, Amazon and Apple stifle competition? Not surprisingly, the tech giants' chief executives will tell Congress: absolutely not. The concern that too much power is concentrated in too few companies is unfounded, they plan to testify Wednesday.
Amid a time of rising tensions with China, some of the powerful CEOs will suggest that too much regulation could provide an opportunity for Chinese tech firms to gain a global toehold, according to opening remarks from the tech leaders released by the House Judiciary antitrust subcommittee.
"We believe in values — democracy, competition, inclusion and free expression — that the American economy was built on," Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg will tell lawmakers, according to his prepared opening statement. "China is building its own version of the internet focused on very different ideas, and they are exporting their vision to other countries."
Amazon's Jeff Bezos, the world's richest person who will be making his first-ever appearance in front of Congress, will bring in his personal storyof being adopted by an immigrant father when he was 4 years old and spending his summers on his grandparents' ranch in Texas, saying his upbringing instilled in him a work ethic that has helped Amazon prosper.
Amazon's rise to becoming the largest online retailer, Bezos will say, is an achievement only made possible in America. But Walmart, he will point out, is still twice the size of Amazon.
"We did not start out as the largest marketplace — eBay was many times our size. It was only by focusing on supporting sellers and giving them the best tools we could invent that we were able to succeed and eventually surpass eBay," Bezos says in his released testimony.
Watch the live stream here beginning at 1 p.m. ET.
Google's Sundar Pichai will steer attention to the other ways people navigate the online world, even though 90% of Internet searches happen on Google.
"People have more ways to search for information than ever before — and increasingly this is happening outside the context of only a search engine," Pichai plans to tell the House panel. "You can ask Alexa a question from your kitchen; read your news on Twitter; ask friends for information via WhatsApp; and get recommendations on Snapchat or Pinterest."
Apple's Tim Cook will echo the appeals to patriotism raised among the other tech CEOs by touting how Apple's strength, becoming the most valuable company in the world, represents success "only possible in this country."
He will also join the other tech leaders by arguing that Apple has plenty of competition.
"The smartphone market is fiercely competitive, and companies like Samsung, LG, Huawei and Google have built very successful smartphone businesses offering different approaches," Cook will say in his opening statement to lawmakers.
Whether members of the House Judiciary Committee's antitrust subcommittee buy these arguments over the course of what is set to be an hourslong spectacle is another matter.
And it remains to be seen if the public will gain new insight into the tech companies, and whether lawmakers can pin down answers from the typically cautious technology executives.
The CEOs will be testifying via video at the same time, rather than one by one, a format seen as taking the heat off any individual executive and something the companies requested.
While the hearing centers on questions around market dominance, lawmakers are free to pepper the executives with questions about any topic.
The anything-goes format will likely divert the hearing away from antitrust and delve into issues like perceived anti-conservative bias on social media platforms, a common Republican refrain. And Democrats, often raising concern about foreign election meddling, may inquire about possible efforts to influence the vote online ahead of the November election.
More on-topic probing could involve issues like acquisitions that have grown the reach of Big Tech.
For instance, Facebook has acquired nearly 90 companies, including Instagram, WhatsApp and more recently, Giphy, a tool for creating animated images.
How ever it goes, one thing is certain: It will be a day for the history books.
The hearing is the first time all four technology leaders have testified together, as scrutiny over the companies' nearly $5 trillion market power draws intensifying scrutiny in Washington.
The CEOs will be on the defensive as House lawmakers grill them about whether the business empire each company has created has resulted in monopoly-like dominance that distorts the marketplace in their favor.
After enjoying more than a decade virtually free of federal regulation, House lawmakers are expected to make the case that it's time for the technology behemoths to be held to account.
The hearing caps a more than year-long House investigation into the Big Tech companies, which has probed whether the industry leaders box out competition, discourage innovation and pose larger threats to society and American democracy.
If Washington can keep the bipartisan focus on Silicon Valley, the hearing could set the stage for historic regulations, but the tech CEOs will be making the case to lawmakers that laws aimed at reining in the scale and power of each company are not necessary, contending that competition among rivals has not been squashed and that consumers have benefited from the technology sector's success.
"You earn trust slowly, over time, by doing hard things well — delivering on time; offering everyday low prices; making promises and keeping them; making principled decisions, even when they're unpopular," Bezos will tell the subcommittee.
Unpopular among the four tech giants: the argument that the power each company has amassed over the years is being abused and needs to be held accountable by Washington.
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