Nicolas Ranieri February 1, 2023 Raffel Is Regulating Big Tech Necessary? Many people believe that Big Tech obtains too much economic and political power, but their presence in society is imperative. It is quite rare for a company to be such a crucial part of everyday life, making Big Tech more than unique. The four companies that compose Big Tech are Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Apple, who are amassing economic success. Not only are these companies supporting communities across the world, but consumers within these communities are benefiting from their easy to access and efficient products. People’s satisfaction makes it no surprise why the “Big Four” are earning over $6 trillion in combined revenue annually. This number is continuing to …show more content…
Larger U.S. corporations are advocating for Tech’s substantial power to be limited because of their destruction of innovation, faulty uses of data, and unprecedented dominance over markets. Nonetheless, disbanding Big Tech will result in a failing US economy. Although breaking up Big Tech restricts the power they hold, they are giving consumers benefits that make their existence worthwhile; so regulating the authority these companies have in different aspects of the economy is a logical alternative. To start, Big Tech is growing from positive interactions conveyed worldwide, gaining immense power and wealth from their superlative goods. Three of the four companies are producing services for low fixed costs or free, which shows their commitment to helping people everywhere. Apple is the only company that is not providing cheap goods, but their devotion to revolutionizing …show more content…
To elaborate, Big Tech lacks comprehensive data collection because there are no financial incentives for collecting it properly (Stapp 2). While Tech can spend their money how they like, it is unfair for smaller firms to deal with scrutiny to give up their assets, especially with Tech’s intentions of diminishing competition (Alcantara). This dilemma of Big Tech taking advantage of their resources results in entrepreneurs' innovation being derailed. Relating back to Tech’s power, Robert Reich shares why the companies are not being punished for their mistreatment of smaller businesses: “They can make small improvements warranting new patents [and] effectively make their intellectual property semipermanent” (Reich). In other words, Big Tech’s political presence covers up their wrongdoings. For example, when Apple buys out a company based on software automation or artificial intelligence, there are no laws protecting the ideas that the smaller firms have created. These start-ups have the ability of reaching immense success if their markets were not dominated by such money hungry monopolies. Combining this and the fact excessive control of data Big Tech persists to have, and people can understand why Big Tech should be broken up. However, these issues may only suggest that new antitrust legislation should