But the subcommittee’s goal involved more than merely revealing specific instances in which laws might have been broken. This is where the echo of the Mafia hearings is strongest: Like Kefauver, Cicilline wants to reveal and then root out a creeping form of oligarchic power.
The Kefauver hearings educated the country about the potency and reach of organized crime and led to short- and long-term legal change. That committee’s final report recommended a “racket squad” within the Justice Department, a federal crime commission, bans on some forms of betting and the creation of what became known as the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (when it was finally passed in 1970). RICO created major new penalties and civil cause of action for crimes that occurred as part of an ongoing criminal enterprise.
What the country understood after the Kefauver hearings was that when a large, networked institution engages in systemic bullying it is far more dangerous than occasional or individual wrongs; shadow governments cannot be squashed with piecemeal whack-a-mole enforcement.
If the analogy to Kefauver’s mob hearings holds, Wednesday’s hearings could spell the beginning of the end of abusive big tech power. Congress will rouse itself to use its subpoena power to unearth even more damning documents, and the public will realize that four self-important men should not govern us.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member