Congress wants internal records from Apple, Amazon, Facebook, and Google

As antitrust investigations heat up, Congress is requesting piles of records from Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Google.

That includes internal communications between execs concerning major projects, like Facebooks acquisition of WhatsApp and Apple’s App Store search algorithm. The House Judiciary Committee also asked for lists of competitors by product, emails, financial statements, and more. 

In the letters sent to each company (linked above), committee members wrote that their investigation is focused on “competition problems in digital markets,” whether big firms are “engaging in anti-competitive” behavior, and whether current laws  “are adequate to address these issues.” 

The committee has listed Oct. 14 as the deadline for all four companies.

The Washington Post (which is owned by Amazon swole daddy Jeff Bezos) notes that these letters “are not official legal demands.” In other words, it’s the committee’s way of asking these tech behemoths nicely to cooperate. If they don’t, though, the committee does have the power to force the release of records and hold hearings. 

It’s more heat on the tech giants, some of which are already mired in newly announced antitrust investigations from U.S. states. On Sept. 6, a group of states led by New York Attorney General Letitia James launched a bipartisan investigation into Facebook. 

Even more formidable, a group of 50 attorneys general representing 48 U.S. states, Puerto Rico, and Washington, D.C. launched a similar bipartisan antirust case against Google on Sept. 9. Only California and Alabama have not signed on. 

We’ve reached out to all four companies involved for comment on the new requests.