The Mark Zuckerberg show in Washington this past week stirred memories for Senator Orrin G. Hatch. The global interest, the overflow crowds and the gavel-to-gavel media coverage, the 84-year-old Utah Republican observed, was “the most intense public scrutiny I’ve seen for a tech-related hearing since the Microsoft hearing.”

Twenty years ago, the tech titan in the Senate hot seat was another Harvard dropout, Bill Gates, co-founder and chief executive of Microsoft. At the time, Microsoft was the most feared corporate powerhouse in America, and the target of government investigations for uncompetitive practices. Mr. Gates was its fearless leader — and he made it clear that he wouldn’t change his ways for Washington.

But that didn’t end well for the company. A few months after Mr. Gates appeared on Capitol Hill, the federal government and 20 states sued Microsoft in a landmark antitrust case. The company lost at trial, and not long after started to lose its dominance.



If Mr. Zuckerberg’s conciliatory performance in front of multiple congressional committees was any guide, he took the history lesson to heart. It also showed how many debates about the technology industry have evolved from traditional antitrust issues to more complex issues like privacy and the companies’ role in democracy.