In today’s ExchangeWire news digest; US House probe accuses Amazon of obstructing its investigation into Big Tech; Twitter launches a privacy-protected version of its site to evade Russian surveillance; and the UK government updates its Online Safety Bill to target scam ads.
Amazon accused of obstructing US House investigation
A US congressional committee who investigated Amazon for potential anti-competitive behaviour has accused the company of illegally obstructing its progress.
The committee’s probe, which took place over 16-months, investigated long-standing suspicions that the e-commerce giant uses the data it has on sellers on its site to influence its own-brand products. The investigation, which also looked into antitrust concerns at Facebook, Google, and Apple, concluded that the size and influence of these Big Tech companies enables them to dictate “winners and losers” in the US economy. So far, Amazon is the only tech company probed by the committee to be accused of obstructing the investigation.
The committee has referred the matter to the Department of Justice, calling for executives at the e-commerce giant to be investigated for “potentially criminal conduct.”
In a letter to the US attorney-general, Merrick Garland, the group claimed that Amazon had “engaged in a pattern and practice of misleading conduct that suggests it was ‘acting with an improper purpose’ ‘to influence, obstruct, or impede’ the [committee]”, adding that the company…
