Can Big Fines Bring Big Tech Back in Line?

So Big Tech has too much power. What can we do? Is there no-one with more power than the tech businesses? Here are some candidates: consumers, employees, investors, advertisers and governments. Consumers have influence in theory, but in the surveillance economy we all know they are the “product being sold”. Employees have protested at times against things like sexual harassment, but Google ranks as the most popular employer among business and engineering students around the world, so don’t expect the employees to make a huge difference any time soon.

Investors could in theory put a lot of pressure on companies to act sustainably and responsibly, there are ethical investment funds, but they tend to look at things like tobacco, fossil fuels, animal testing and guns. A bit of a stretch to things like freedom and truth. No luck there. Also, investors like stocks that beat the market, which tech has done for decades. (Thanks to “disruptive innovation” which is a different way to say making money from somebody else’s investment.)

Advertisers may be the best bet, they provide most of the revenue after all. Sometimes advertisers get enough and pull the ads, like when $140 Million US worth of toothpaste ads was cut due to unwanted terrorist video visibility. But the general trend is that more advertising bucks go to Big Tech, not fewer.

Lastly, Governments, do they have the power to reign Silicon Valley in? Depends. China doesn’t even need to make threats to keep the internet in line on things like displaying Taiwan as part of China or punishing a sports club whose manager voices support for the protestors in Hong Kong. Not that Netopia approves, two wrongs don’t make a right. The toolset available to Western governments is more limited: competition policy, privacy regulation and one or two more things. We have seen some really big fines over the years. GDPR fines can be as much as 2% of global turn-over. Except even if enforced, such as fine only scratches the paint on the company’s market value: Google-parent Alphabet’s share price is around 25 times the earnings. That means 2% of earnings equals 0,08% of market value. Netopia has an infographic that shows the proportions.

Is there no hope? Is resistance futile? No! There is always hope! Resistance is never futile! The things mentioned may be weak but not pointless. In combination they may have an effect. Policy-makers are beginning to step up to the challenge. New policy is on the way. There will be a better tomorrow. (Unless of course Google’s quantum computer becomes self-aware and decides to kill all humans.)