Vice President JD Vance reveals Big Tech 'very much on notice' after CEO's inaugural donations

"The richest men in the world were at that Capitol on Inauguration Day. Heads of Amazon, Google, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook. In August, you told us Google and Facebook are too big. 'We ought to take the Teddy Roosevelt approach. Break 'em up. Don't let them control what people are allowed to say.' They've now donated to the Trump inauguration. Are you still going to break up Big Tech?" CBS News' Margaret Brennan asked Vance, before noting the seating arrangements on Inauguration Day.

"We believe fundamentally that Big Tech does have too much power, and there are two ways they can go about this. They can either respect Americans' constitutional rights - they can stop engaging in censorship, and if they don't, you can be absolutely sure that Donald Trump's leadership is not going to look too kindly on them," Vance said. 

Brennan followed up by asking if the CEOs were still on notice.

The major donations and presence at Trump's inauguration marked a major departure for Big Tech, which largely imposed a temporary ban on Trump's public profiles in 2020 via their social media platforms. These companies have also become more critical of the Biden administration, voicing displeasure with the White House's attempts at oversight.

Zuckerberg specifically announced that Facebook and Instagram would be ending their fact-checking mechanism and using a community notes system going forward. 

Vance also seemed to argue that the tech CEOs' presence at Trump's inauguration was not all that relevant, noting that many people in attendance did not donate to the inaugural festivities. 

"They got pretty good seating," CBS' Brennan argued.

"They didn't have as good of seating as my mom and a lot of other people who were there to support us," Vance said.