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Lawmakers Give Tech "Emperors" Jabs from Two Sides
兩黨立法官員左右夾擊科技“帝王”
By Cecilia Kang and David McCabe
文/塞西莉亞·康，大衛·麥凱布
The chief executives of Amazon, Apple, Google and Facebook,
周三，亞馬遜、蘋果、谷歌和Facebook的首席執行官們，
four tech giants worth nearly $5 trillion combined,
四位科技巨頭總身價近5萬億美元，
faced withering questions from Republican and Democratic lawmakers alike on Wednesday
陷入了共和黨，民主黨兩黨議員的尖銳質問之下，
for the tactics and market dominance that had made their enterprises successful.
矛頭直指幫助他們各自的企業獲得成功的策略和市場主導地位。
For more than five hours, the 15 members of an antitrust panel in the House lobbed questions
長達五個多小時的時間，眾議院反壟斷小組的15名成員不斷提出問題，
and repeatedly interrupted and talked over Jeff Bezos of Amazon,
還反復打斷亞馬遜的杰夫·貝佐斯，
Tim Cook of Apple, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook and Sundar Pichai of Google.
蘋果的蒂姆·庫克、Facebook的馬克·扎克伯格和谷歌的桑達爾·皮查伊的發言。
It was the first congressional hearing for some time
這是一段時間以來，
where Democrats and Republicans acted as if they had a common foe, though for different reasons.
民共兩黨首次在國會聽證會上，盡管出于不同原因，做出同仇敵愾的姿態。
Democratic lawmakers criticized the tech companies for buying start-ups to stifle them
民主黨議員批評他們使用收購手段扼殺初創企業，
and for unfairly using their data hoards to clone and kill off competitors,
利用數據儲備優勢克隆、消滅競爭對手，
while Republicans questioned whether the platforms had muzzled conservative viewpoints and were unpatriotic.
共和黨人質疑的則是他們的平臺是否壓制了保守觀點，是否欠缺愛國精神。
"As gatekeepers to the digital economy,
“作為數字經濟的守門人，
these platforms enjoy the power to pick winners and losers,
這些平臺享受著挑選贏家和輸家的權力，
shake down small businesses and enrich themselves while choking off competitors,"
敲詐小企業的權力，和通過扼殺競爭對手發財致富的權力，”
said Representative David Cicilline, Democrat of Rhode Island and chairman of the House Judiciary Committee's antitrust subcommittee.
眾議院司法委員會反壟斷小組委員會主席、羅德島州民主黨眾議員大衛·西西里尼說。
"Our founders would not bow before a king. Nor should we bow before the emperors of the online economy."
“我們的元老都沒有向國王低頭，我們也不應該向網絡經濟的帝王們低頭。”
In response, Mr. Pichai, Mr. Zuckerberg, Mr. Cook and Mr. Bezos,
皮查伊、扎克伯格、庫克和貝佐斯，
who testified via videoconference because of the coronavirus pandemic,
三人因冠狀疫情只能通過視頻會議作證，
were forced to strike a more humble chord.
無奈只能用更為謙卑的語氣回應西西里尼。
They presented themselves as participants in enormously competitive and fast-changing digital marketplaces,
他們都將自己說成是競爭激烈、瞬息萬變的數字市場的參與者，
and they evaded questions about the decisions that turned their companies into giants.
卻回避了有關將他們的公司變成了巨頭的決定的問題。
"We approach this process with respect and humility,
“我們是以尊重和謙遜的態度在參與數字市場，
but we make no concession on the facts," said Mr. Cook at the outset of his testimony.
但在事實問題面前我們是不會讓步的，“庫克一開始作證就表明了這一態度。
Not since Microsoft stood trial in the late 1990s for antitrust charges have tech chief executives been under such a microscope for the power of their businesses.
自上世紀90年代末微軟因反壟斷指控受審以來，科技公司的CEO們還從未因其業務權力受到如此密切的關注。
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