“The only two industries that label their consumers as ‘users’ are drug manufacturers and software developers.” This line by Edward Tufte explains clearly how social media giants perceive their consumers. Almost every tech sector has monopolistic players at whose mercy users live. 99% of the Mobile OS market is captured by just two companies- Google and Apple. Facebook alone controls more than 70% of the Social Media market. No matter how much we live in the illusion that it is we who control our Social Media accounts but the reality is these giants, through social media platforms, control us. So, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that humanity is overdependent on monopolistic social media giants.
These cash-rich companies have lobbied millions of dollars to legislatures to make favorable rules. Today, millions of businessmen are completely dependent on Facebook and Google for their bread & butter. The recent server issues in Facebook caused huge financial losses both direct and indirect, especially for small businessmen. Even the US government has been dependent on tech giants to spy for them which is why their dominance had so long remained unquestioned. But the same Congress was startled when Russia allegedly used its own ‘domestic’ monopolistic giants to influence voters’ decisions. So now, an app would decide the government of the most powerful country in the world! This compelled not only teenagers, educational institutions, and professionals but governments too in rethinking their dependence on a few media platforms without which all would feel socially unconnected with everyone.
Currently, China has sabotaged its own tech companies when it noticed their excess influence on Chinese citizens. Though their measures can’t be imbibed by other nations due to their undemocratic nature some big nations have started questioning Tech Giants’ supremacy and bringing them under stringent laws. Australia passed a law this year to force Google and Facebook to pay for news content published on their platforms. This worried them as it would mean draining profits from their reserves to local content creators. America even has a law (Sherman Antitrust Act) that bans businesses from merging to create a monopoly. Recently, the Indian Government also tried to curb the powers of such companies by imposing new IT Rules despite protests against them. So, not only China, rather governments around the world are trying to control the uncontrollable supremacy of these companies.
Some international rules like making big tech companies share data with smaller ones and forcing them against locking in their users, i.e., ensuring interoperability among any app would allow new platforms to compete freely. Moreover, normal citizens and businessmen should diversify their social media presence and unethical rules or decisions on any social media platform must be brought under notice. Domestic platforms should be promoted as it would reduce overdependency and increase competition.
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Kshitij-Barua, PGP Batch Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad |
