Jeff Bezos eating a snack, room ratings and 'the Net': Key online moments from Big Tech hearing

WASHINGTON (REUTERS) - Two years after Facebook chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg's explanation to US lawmakers - "Senator, we run ads" - exploded as a meme, online viewers again ridiculed key moments of a tech antitrust showdown on Wednesday (July 29).

The chief executives of the country's largest tech companies - including Zuckerberg, Amazon's Jeff Bezos, Sundar Pichai of Alphabet's Google and Apple's Tim Cook - gave virtual testimony before the US House Judiciary Committee's antitrust panel.

Social media users jumped on the fact that Amazon's Bezos received no questions for almost two hours in his first appearance before Congress. At one point, the world's richest man appeared to reach off-screen for a snack, to the Internet's delight.

"someone calculate how much money he made during this nom," tweeted @Bryson-M.

Others did back-of-the-napkin calculations to figure out the answer.

It was not immediately clear if there were technical problems with Amazon's feed.

US Representative James Sensenbrenner's repeated use of the phrase "the Net" was also mocked online for being outdated, with watchers posting about the 1995 action thriller of the same name starring Sandra Bullock and sharing GIFs of retro computer icons and dial-up Internet.

The Wisconsin Republican also grilled Facebook's CEO on Twitter's decision to restrict Donald Trump Jr's account from tweeting for 12 hours this week after he violated its rules on coronarvirus misinformation.

"I think what you might be referring to happened on Twitter, so it's hard for me to speak to that," said Zuckerberg.

Republican Representative Greg Steube was also roasted on social media for asking Google's CEO, Pichai, why his campaign emails were going to spam folders in Gmail.

The chief executives initially appeared as thumbnail images on a large screen, frustrating viewers who mocked the virtual set-up on Twitter.

When the CEOs were later shown individually on large screens, the popular pandemic Twitter account @ratemyskyperoom pronounced its scores, saying Zuckerberg's set-up looked like a hostage video.

For Bezos? "Back off the soft focus. Add books. Remember books? Order a couple ring lights. Here's one. You gave it 4.5 stars. You get 6/10," it tweeted, with a screenshot of an Amazon ring light product.

The lawmakers also descended into shouting at several points, with a pandemic twist.

The refrain "put your mask on!" caught the attention of Twitter users.

"Can't wait for the Jeopardy Q in 2022: This Congressional Hearing popularised "Put your mask on" as an insult," wrote one Twitter user, referring to the popular American quiz show.