The world is watching, our adversaries are watching whether or not the Congress of the United States is united in our defense of our democracy.

I rise in support of the en bloc package before the committee.

It is the only democracy in the strategically important region.

Elections will be decided by the American people and no one else.

But the difference is Amazon is a $1 trillion company that runs an online platform with real-time data on millions of purchases and billions in commerce and can manipulate algorithms on its platform and favor its own product.

Polling shows that only one in 20 Americans think tech should be the focus of government oversight.

Polling shows that online platforms have helped nearly 60 percent of Americans discover new small businesses.

I think there's a very simple reason for that: They've bought their competitors.

I did not at all suggest that TikTok provided robust competition for Facebook.

In 2004, Google's cofounder Larry Page said the purpose of Google is to have people come to Google, quickly find out what you want and to get you out of Google and get you to the right place as fast as possible.

America's independent businesses are in trouble. They are declining rapidly across many sectors of the economy and it's not because they can't compete.

Is the Gazelle Project still in place, Mr. Sutton?

I suggest that this subcommittee look into an email written by Mark Zuckerberg around the time of the Instagram acquisition where he stated, as has been reported in the press, that the purpose of this--and this is paraphrasing--was to…

I think there needs to be serious scrutiny of the Amazon search engine.

In retrospect, when you look back at the effects of these big cases, they loosened up the tech markets; they helped to contribute to an enormous boom in the tech and telecom markets that lasted and has lasted more than 30 years.

And so I would similarly ask you in the spirit of cooperation do you commit to not engage in those tactics in response to this investigation?

The final thing I want to just ask this committee's investigation is extremely important for the economy, for consumers, for those you represent.

I want to focus on how the state of competition online is affecting real people in the communities we represent.