Mr. DHH Goes to Washington

Basecamp co-founder and Chief Technology Officer David Heinemeier Hansson has been ranting on Twitter about monopolistic practices in Big Tech for a while, and he recently got an unexpected opportunity to air his grievances about Google, Apple, and Facebook in front of a congressional subcommittee. In this episode, David debriefs on his experience and Basecamp's data analyst, Jane Yang, talks about her work helping David prepare for his appearance.

Show Notes

Judiciary Committee page about the hearing, including a video of the event - 1:37

"Pick A Fight," our episode about why David enjoys arguing on Twitter - 2:38

"Open Source Beyond the Market," David's 2019 RailsConf keynote - 4:59

"The Google Ads Shakedown," our episode about our displeasure with the way Google handles ads in search results - 5:51

"100% Facebook-Free," our episode about pulling Basecamp from Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp - 6:42

Previous subcommittee hearings on "Online Platforms and Market Power" - 8:01

David's prepared remarks - 8:35

Congressman Ken Buck - 11:25

The other witnesses were Patrick Spence of Sonos, David Barnett of PopSockets, and Kirsten Daru of Tile - 12:13

"PopSockets CEO says Amazon uses 'bullying with a smile' to press for lower prices" (CNBC) - 13:02

"Everything we know about Apple's Tile-like item tracking device" (9to5Mac) - 19:22

"Apple's Flashlight Is Why We Can't Fund Nice Dumb Things" (TechCrunch) - 19:40

The story of Steve Jobs calling Dropbox a "feature" is recounted in this 2011 Fortune article - 20:23

"Here's how we can break up Big Tech" (Elizabeth Warren) - 26:29

Goldman Sachs estimated that Google paid Apple $9.46 billion in 2018 to be the default search engine - 26:50

The European Union's landmark antitrust case against Microsoft required it to offer a choice of browsers to Windows users - 27:08

NerdWallet's explainer of the Glass-Steagall Act - 27:24

A New York Times explainer of the Overton window - 31:13