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Lawmakers Give Tech "Emperors" Jabs from Two Sides
两党立法官员左右夹击科技“帝王”
By Cecilia Kang and David McCabe
文/塞西莉亚·康，大卫·麦凯布
The chief executives of Amazon, Apple, Google and Facebook,
周三，亚马逊、苹果、谷歌和Facebook的首席执行官们，
four tech giants worth nearly $5 trillion combined,
四位科技巨头总身价近5万亿美元，
faced withering questions from Republican and Democratic lawmakers alike on Wednesday
陷入了共和党，民主党两党议员的尖锐质问之下，
for the tactics and market dominance that had made their enterprises successful.
矛头直指帮助他们各自的企业获得成功的策略和市场主导地位。
For more than five hours, the 15 members of an antitrust panel in the House lobbed questions
长达五个多小时的时间，众议院反垄断小组的15名成员不断提出问题，
and repeatedly interrupted and talked over Jeff Bezos of Amazon,
还反复打断亚马逊的杰夫·贝佐斯，
Tim Cook of Apple, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook and Sundar Pichai of Google.
苹果的蒂姆·库克、Facebook的马克·扎克伯格和谷歌的桑达尔·皮查伊的发言。
It was the first congressional hearing for some time
这是一段时间以来，
where Democrats and Republicans acted as if they had a common foe, though for different reasons.
民共两党首次在国会听证会上，尽管出于不同原因，做出同仇敌忾的姿态。
Democratic lawmakers criticized the tech companies for buying start-ups to stifle them
民主党议员批评他们使用收购手段扼杀初创企业，
and for unfairly using their data hoards to clone and kill off competitors,
利用数据储备优势克隆、消灭竞争对手，
while Republicans questioned whether the platforms had muzzled conservative viewpoints and were unpatriotic.
共和党人质疑的则是他们的平台是否压制了保守观点，是否欠缺爱国精神。
"As gatekeepers to the digital economy,
“作为数字经济的守门人，
these platforms enjoy the power to pick winners and losers,
这些平台享受着挑选赢家和输家的权力，
shake down small businesses and enrich themselves while choking off competitors,"
敲诈小企业的权力，和通过扼杀竞争对手发财致富的权力，”
said Representative David Cicilline, Democrat of Rhode Island and chairman of the House Judiciary Committee's antitrust subcommittee.
众议院司法委员会反垄断小组委员会主席、罗德岛州民主党众议员大卫·西西里尼说。
"Our founders would not bow before a king. Nor should we bow before the emperors of the online economy."
“我们的元老都没有向国王低头，我们也不应该向网络经济的帝王们低头。”
In response, Mr. Pichai, Mr. Zuckerberg, Mr. Cook and Mr. Bezos,
皮查伊、扎克伯格、库克和贝佐斯，
who testified via videoconference because of the coronavirus pandemic,
三人因冠状疫情只能通过视频会议作证，
were forced to strike a more humble chord.
无奈只能用更为谦卑的语气回应西西里尼。
They presented themselves as participants in enormously competitive and fast-changing digital marketplaces,
他们都将自己说成是竞争激烈、瞬息万变的数字市场的参与者，
and they evaded questions about the decisions that turned their companies into giants.
却回避了有关将他们的公司变成了巨头的决定的问题。
"We approach this process with respect and humility,
“我们是以尊重和谦逊的态度在参与数字市场，
but we make no concession on the facts," said Mr. Cook at the outset of his testimony.
但在事实问题面前我们是不会让步的，“库克一开始作证就表明了这一态度。
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.
自上世纪90年代末微软因反垄断指控受审以来，科技公司的CEO们还从未因其业务权力受到如此密切的关注。
译文由可可原创，仅供学习交流使用，未经许可请勿转载。
