The Empire Strikes Back: Tech giants mount defense against House antitrust bills – By Jon Swartz (Marketwatch) / June 23 2021
Before the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday began to consider a package of antitrust bills that represent the gravest threat yet to Silicon Valley’s power, the Big Tech Empire struck back.
Representatives from Apple Inc., Facebook Inc., and Amazon.com Inc. targets of bills that would severely hinder their ability to acquire smaller rivals, disrupt their digital platforms, and potentially break up their companies — warned the legislation would strangle innovation, compromise the privacy and security of consumers, and handcuff the U.S. in economic competition with China, among other dangers. (Google parent Alphabet Inc. had no comment.)
Apple strongly pushed back with a letter to the committee and an internal paper online that outlined the security and privacy dangers of sideloading programs onto the App Store, amplifying comments from Chief Executive Tim Cook last week. On a tech panel, he warned that sideloading would “destroy the security of the iPhone, and a lot of the privacy initiatives we built into the App Store.”
The paper, timed to the House’s actions, also comes amid Apple’s legal showdown with Epic Games Inc. over the parameters of the App Store. Opening up the platform with proper security measures would be less safe for kids, as well as increase incidents of ransomware and malware, fraud privacy, and privacy violations, according to people close to Apple.
