California-based search engine giant Google and Washington-based software company Microsoft are grappling with each other, under pressure from lawmakers and regulators over the extraordinary power the two tech companies wield in life. American.
Tensions between Microsoft and Google, which is owned by Alphabet, have been going on for a while, but the fighting has become unusually overt in recent days, as executives from the two companies have been put on the defensive over the successive crises that emerge in technology.
Google is facing bipartisan complaints and press outrage over its role in obtaining media industry advertising revenue, the subject of Friday's congressional antitrust hearing.
Meanwhile, Microsoft is facing scrutiny for its role in successive cybersecurity breaches, starting with alleged Russian hackers who infiltrated SolarWinds in Texas using Microsoft's cloud technology to break into some of the company's customers.
Even the hacking case revealed at the beginning of this month, over allegations that Chinese hackers are misusing previously unknown vulnerabilities to dump emails from Microsoft clients around the world.
In a speech to lawmakers on Friday at the House of Representatives' Antitrust Subcommittee, Microsoft Chairman Brad Smith decided to fire a bullet at Google, to tell lawmakers that media organizations are forced to "use Google tools, exchange Google ads, and contribute to building data in Google as well as operations, and the payment of money to Google, "according to excerpts from his testimony published by Axios.
Google responded, saying that "Microsoft's attack on us comes in the wake of the Solar Windows attack, and at a time when it has allowed tens of thousands of its customers to penetrate, including government agencies in the United States, NATO allies, banks, non-profit organizations, telecommunications providers, public facilities, police, fire and rescue units and hospitals," And news organizations are actively crossing Microsoft's key weaknesses. "