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Break Up The Tech Giants

Our data, which we freely give the tech giants, is being used by governments, political parties and business to influence how we think, how we vote and how we choose to spend our money. Can we continue to enjoy the benefits of internet technology while retaining our privacy, or is the only answer to unplug all together?

It is time to call the tech companies to account. In the space of just ten years, Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft have become the biggest companies on the planet and have accrued a level of power that threatens us all. They control our data, warp our democratic discourse, and exert increasing dominance over our markets. No wonder we are in the middle of a long-awaited ‘techlash’ against the technology giants. Look at the EU’s recent crackdown on tax avoidance by Amazon and Apple, or its record €2.4 billion fine of Google. In the UK, the Committee on Standards in Public Life has just set out guidelines for prosecuting web giants such as Facebook, arguing that they are publishers, not mere ‘platforms’, and therefore responsible for the content they host. Through the influence of ‘network effects’ (whereby the first to dominate a market reaps almost all the rewards), these companies have snuffed out the competition. This matters to everyone – not simply for the sake of healthy markets, but for the democratic wellbeing of all of us. The power of these companies lies not just in their size, but in the 21st century’s most valuable asset, data, the oil of the digital economy, which the tech companies extract freely from us, the users. With so much data and power centralised in the hands of a few West Coast companies, the tech giants have become a serious threat to our basic freedoms and must be broken up. That’s the argument that was made at this major Intelligence Squared debate by the FT’s global business columnist Rana Foroohar and by businessman and former chairman of Channel 4 Luke Johnson.

But others would argue that it’s all too easy to make the tech giants a scapegoat for the inevitable upheavals caused by the digital revolution. The real winners of this revolution are not the tech companies but us, the users. Who could now imagine living without the services of Amazon, Apple, Google, Facebook and Microsoft? That’s the case that was made in our debate by former head of Facebook’s European politics and government division Elizabeth Linder and competition law expert Pinar Akman. The simple reason these companies have become so huge is that we prefer their services to anyone else’s. Amazon, for example, have served the consumer by keeping prices low – hardly a sign of anti-competitive behaviour. And when it comes to competition, the dominance of today’s tech giants is far from assured. Digital tools and cheap market entry have made it easier than ever for rival startups to launch new online businesses. Tech companies are uniquely vulnerable to changes in fortune. Far from being untamed monopolies, the tech giants face fierce competition from each other. Yes, they should be fairly regulated. But we should champion the benefits they have brought to the wider world.


Speakers

Speakers For The Motion

Rana Foroohar

Global Business Columnist at the FT


Global Business Columnist and an Associate Editor at the Financial Times. She is also CNN’s global economic analyst. Her book, Makers and Takers: The Rise of Finance and the Fall of American Business, about why the capital markets no longer support business, was shortlisted for the Financial Times McKinsey Book of the Year award.  

Luke Johnson

Entrepreneur and former chairman of Channel 4


Entrepreneur and former chairman of Channel 4. He has run businesses including Pizza Express, Patisserie Valerie, Gail's, Belgo and The Ivy. He is now Chairman of private equity house Risk Capital Partners LLP, and writes a weekly column on business for The Sunday Times.
Speakers Against The Motion

Pinar Akman

Competition law expert and Professor of Law at the University of Leeds


Competition law expert, and Professor of Law at the University of Leeds, where she is also the Director of the Centre for Business Law and Practice. She is an Associate Member of the ESRC Centre for Competition Policy, and was awarded a 2017 Philip Leverhulme Prize in Law.

Elizabeth Linder

Founder and former head of Facebook’s Politics and Government division (EMEA region)


Founder and former head of Facebook’s Politics and Government division for the EMEA region. She also formerly worked on politics and communications at YouTube the year it was acquired by Google, and is now CEO of The Conversational Century, a global advisory movement.
Chair

Nik Gowing

Presenter, BBC World News


Nik Gowing has been a main presenter for the BBC’s international 24-hour news channel BBC World News, since 1996, where he presents The Hub with Nik Gowing, BBC World Debates, Dateline London and location coverage. For 18 years he worked at ITN where he was bureau chief in Rome and Warsaw, and Diplomatic Editor for Channel Four News (1988-1996).