Re-conceiving big tech

April 6, 2021

One of the most important things that I have learned as an advisor over the last 14 years is that while regulation is often intended to lower systemic risk, regulatory requirements often create new, unintended risks that regulators had not foreseen.

The same can be said for innovation. While technology has sought to bring us closer and make our lives easier, safer and more productive, the opposite has proven true in many respects.

Have we reached the breaking point that requires us to rethink the way big tech operates? Applying antitrust rules more effectively is probably the first tool in the framework to counter the power of big tech, although this requires time, political will and revising the “consumer welfare” standard to more meaningfully reflect benefits that are not purely economic.

Applying data protection rules more rigorously, such as the GDPR and Digital Markets Act, is another tool, although is “ex post” in nature and does not require the companies to significantly change their business models.

A third goal would be to achieve some sort of consensus that, because big tech is an industry so influenced by natural monopoly dynamics, a more significant public oversight role is justified, whether through transparency, audits or adopting a more “public” operating model similar to that of electricity or water utilities.

What is clear is that a purely privatized model has led to an erosion of sovereignty, experienced more acutely within the Global South. In any case, reform in technology from a human rights perspective also requires some measure of advocacy for a more “sustainable” corporate model that reinvests in stakeholders, combats short-termism and normalizes lack of dividends.

Reforming big tech is not a question of adopting superficial policies and procedures, but fundamentally revisiting how these companies generate and distribute income. Many of the human rights issues that are raised at the moment are not born within tech itself but through technology’s attempt to solve problems in the energy, health, financial and transportation spaces. The stumbling blocks and lessons learned by these other industries may also provide a gateway to solutions.

CPM