Big Tech affects our lives in many ways daily. We buy from Amazon, use Google’s email and search engine, and Facebook connects us with dozens of friends socially. These are but a few ways we knowingly use their services.
Why should they be broken up? In their particular businesses they are the biggest and most powerful and have little competition. Historically, in the early nineteenth century, railroad, oil and steel industries were the giant companies of that day. There was much concern over those big companies because of their power and monopolizing of business. The Federal government responded by enacting antitrust laws such as the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 which was used to break up these large companies into smaller companies. For over 100 years, according to the Federal Trade Commission, the antitrust laws have had the same basic objective: to protect the process of competition for the benefit of consumers, making sure there are strong incentives for businesses to operate efficiently, keep prices down, and keep quality up. It would appear that Big Tech is guilty of breaking at least some of these laws.
Currently we have Big Tech monopolizing certain industries. Amazon has no serious competition in online retailing and its Amazon Web Services (AWS) offers infrastructure platforms in the cloud that powers hundreds of thousands of businesses in 190 countries around the world. Google has no serious rival as a search engine and its YouTube provides a platform for thousands of videos and is the second largest search engine in the world. Facebook as a social media platform has no significant competitor and since its purchase of Instagram has increased its monopolization of the social media market. These companies collect data on their users and in many cases sell this data or use collected data for targeted advertisements on the internet.
However, there is another danger of the power of Big Tech, and that is its alliance with the Federal government. Big tech companies have long been in business with the federal government. Currently the Central Intelligence Agency uses the cloud services of AWS, a subsidiary of Amazon. The $600 million contract allows all intelligence agencies to share data more efficiently as reported by the Atlantic. Currently there is a $10 million contract being bid on by Amazon from the Department of Defense. Big Tech and the US government could be considered business partners. Hardly conducive to antitrust lawsuits.
According to some, Big Tech exerts muscle in the political arena as well. Robert Epstein, a San Diego-based psychologist, believes bias built into Google’s processes could have cost Republicans three California congressional districts in the last election. “These are new forms of manipulation people can’t see,” he said in a LA Times article. “The technologies can have an enormous impact on voters who are undecided. … People have no awareness the influence is being exerted.” However, Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet Inc. and its subsidiary, Google, said at a House Judiciary Committee that Google had investigated Epstein’s findings and found his methodology flawed. Later, in a Hillsdale College speech, Epstein said that he was confident that Google had influenced the 2020 Presidential Election. According to his research, undecided Democrat voters were urged continuously to vote prior to election day. Such encouragement was not given by Google to undecided Republican voters. Epstein said that his data proves that Google influenced the election results.
Perhaps action against Big Tech would force Amazon to divest itself of Amazon Web Services, Google to sell YouTube, and Facebook to rid itself of Instagram. The Federal government forced AT & T to divest itself of its subsidiaries in 1974 according to ivestopedia.com. Such action against Big Tech would allow for more competition. However, according to Fortune, The US will probably not break up Big Tech because that would allow China to become the big tech leader in the world. This is based primarily on the loss of technical research due to a breakup.
In October, 2020, according to the Associated Press, the House Judiciary Committee presented to Congress a 450 page report into Big Tech’s market dominance. “Each platform serves as a gatekeeper over a key channel of information.” The report says that, “By controlling access to them these giants can pick winners and losers throughout the economy” This report could prompt some action leading to antitrust action against Big Tech.
Regardless, of whether you support breaking up the Big Tech companies or regulating it more, contact your legislators in Washington to advocate for your wishes.
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