Big Tech companies should be regulated

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Introduction

This piece is part 1 of a 2 part series on the regulation of big tech companies. This piece will be focusing on the negative connotations of regulating the tech industry like banks.*

With the increasing value of personal data from consumers, tech companies have become a sort of banks to store this information, which should be regulated like banks to ensure data and privacy are protected, where personal data is a metaphor for currency. However, with the rise of web 2.0, and more complicated forms of monitization, one stands clear: the monitization of users’ private data is increasing (Chaudhry & Mirala, 2021).

The world wide web isn’t as free as people believe it is, as tech companies have started to implement ways to monetize information about their userbase to determine things that would help continue the business and continue to boost profits for the company. With this, consumers are often referred to as paying for the world wide web with their privacy, and their personal data is the currency (Constable, 2018).

For this reason, there has been an argument that big tech companies should prioritize the protection and distribution of sensitive information and private data of their consumers.

Regulation would protect children from harmful content

Regulating big tech companies would help protect consumers from harmful and negative effects of social media on children. Currently, most social media apps require users to be at least 13 years old, but in a recent poll, parents shared taht 50% of children 10 to 12 years old and 33% of children 7-9 years old use social media apps (McNamee, 2020).

This is incredibly harmful, since the exposure to social media, since it doesn’t portray an accurate picture of someone’s life, and they often lead to negative effects (Josaphine, 2022). Regulating big tech companies to ensure that their consumers are protecting children and minors would help continue to enforce the spread of harmfull material and ideas, while also preserving the mental health of children (Josaphine, 2022).

For the greater good and the future of our species, we should ensure and regulate what children view on social media by having stricter regulations on what information is being shared, and the actual age of the consumers and users (Pediatrics, 2021).

Regulation would help take limit anti-trust behavior

Regulating big tech companies would help break down monopolies forming in large tech companies. With the increasing reliance on the internet of things and the world wide web, our lives have started to orbit large tech companies (Quest & Charrie, 2019).

In our current environment, Google owns 92% of the search engine market share, while Apple and Meta have also dominated their own space, ensuring that their platforms are as locked down as possible (Padilla, 2019). This ultimately creates monopolies that have had issues with anti-trust laws and other anti-competitive behaviour (Josaphine, 2022).

This also furthers the dependence of these monopolies, ensuring a smoother transition will be enacted if there was a better product or service that was being provided (Padilla, 2019). Tech companies like Google and Amazon have pointed out that there are already regulations, and that they are not a monopoly due to competition, however, they still control the majority of search, app, and server development (McNamee, 2020).

Regulation would set a standard for protecting privacy and security

Regulating big tech companies would protect consumers’ privacy and security from greed and anti-trust behavior. Many software engineers and privacy enthusiasts have stated that despite many services offered to us by Google, Amazon, and Meta, we are still paying for this by using our personal information (McNamee, 2020).

Thus, servers owned by these tech conglomerates, can be referred to as banks, holding users’ private information as liquidity and currency (Explore, 2022).This should be regulated to ensure the protection of the private and sensitive information of users and consumers, to further protect their personal information.

References

Chaudhry, V. (2021, December 30). Home. YouTube. Retrieved November 22, 2022, from https://www.thesentinel.com/communities/the-big-dilemma-over-big-tech-to-regulate-or-not-to-regulate/article_25e9a298-69f4-11ec-a525-13a26e2f543a.htm

Chaudhry, V., & Mirala, N. (2021, December 31). The Big Dilemma over Big Tech: To Regulate or Not to Regulate. Montgomery County Sentinel. Retrieved November 22, 2022, from https://www.thesentinel.com/communities/the-big-dilemma-over-big-tech-to-regulate-or-not-to-regulate/article_25e9a298-69f4-11ec-a525-13a26e2f543a.html

Constable, S. (2018, March 26). Home. YouTube. Retrieved November 22, 2022, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/simonconstable/2018/03/26/no-we-really-dont-need-government-regulation-of-the-tech-industry/?sh=35c32d14eb8d

Explore, T. (2022, March 25). Big Tech now regulated like banks, says EU antitrust chief. Tech Xplore. Retrieved November 22, 2022, from https://techxplore.com/news/2022-03-big-tech-banks-eu-antitrust.html

Josaphine. (2022, September 26). The Big Debate Over Whether Fintech Companies Should Be ... SpentApp. Retrieved November 22, 2022, from https://spentapp.com/the-big-debate-over-whether-fintech-companies-should-be-regulated-like-traditional-financial-institutions/

McNamee, R. (2020, July 29). Big Tech Needs To Be Regulated. Here's How. TIME. Retrieved November 22, 2022, from https://time.com/5872868/big-tech-regulated-here-is-4-ways/

Padilla, J. (2019, April 10). Home. YouTube. Retrieved November 22, 2022, from https://sites.duke.edu/thefinregblog/2019/04/10/the-pros-and-cons-of-big-tech-banking/

Pediatrics. (2021, December 3). Effects of Social Media on Children – Cleveland Clinic. Cleveland Clinic. Retrieved November 22, 2022, from https://health.clevelandclinic.org/dangers-of-social-media-for-youth/

Quest, L., & Charrie, A. (2019, September 19). The Right Way to Regulate the Tech Industry. MIT Sloan Management Review. Retrieved November 22, 2022, from https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/the-right-way-to-regulate-the-tech-industry/

Radu, S. (2020, January 15). The World Wants Big Tech Companies to Be Regulated. USNews.com. Retrieved November 22, 2022, from https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/articles/2020-01-15/the-world-wants-big-tech-companies-to-be-regulated

Scott, E., & Stewart, M. (2020, December 16). The value and challenges of regulating Big Tech. Harvard Kennedy School. Retrieved November 22, 2022, from https://www.hks.harvard.edu/faculty-research/policy-topics/business-regulation/value-and-challenges-regulating-big-tech

Waters, C. (2021, February 13). Should big tech be regulated like big banks? Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved November 22, 2022, from https://www.smh.com.au/technology/should-big-tech-be-regulated-like-big-banks-20210212-p571y6.html