There are signs Republicans intend to raise unproven accusations that tech companies are biased against conservatives at tomorrow’s major hearing on the size and scope of Silicon Valley’s power.

The hearing with the chiefs of Facebook, Apple, Amazon and Google is the culmination of a more than year-long investigation into the power of tech titans. 

Yet Democrats and tech policy experts warned that anticonservative bias claims could distract from those issues in the rare hearing, in which lawmakers will have a limited window of time to press four of the wealthiest and most powerful industry leaders in the United States.

Many consumer advocates and Democrats hope tomorrow’s hearing can set the stage for an overhaul of outdated antitrust laws, which are difficult to apply to competition in issues in the tech industry. But if lawmakers remain focused on the divisive – and flashier – issue of content moderation, it could be challenging to reach that consensus. 

“The success of this hearing depends on having a laser-like focus on the power of these companies, how they act anticompetitively, what their impact is on democracy,” said Gigi Sohn, a distinguished fellow at the Georgetown Law Institute for Technology Law & Policy. “If the hearing goes off in too many different directions … then it just becomes very confusing.” 

More at Washington Post.