What is Big Tech, and who controls it? All you need to know

What is Big Tech?

What’s known as Big Tech consists of a few multinational tech companies that have accumulated a significant amount of power within the tech market and beyond. While these companies are responsible for most of our online services, their far-reaching influence and the use of it are the subjects of open debate. Critics often condemn Big Tech companies for their egregious data hoarding, market and opinion manipulation, lack of transparent handling of user data, and biased algorithms.

The Big Five companies

Big Tech usually includes five well-known multinational companies: Facebook (Meta), Google, Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft.

Facebook (Meta)

As one of the first social networking sites, Facebook took the world by storm, gathering over 2 billion active users worldwide (as of 2024). With the acquisition of Instagram and WhatsApp, the social media company has strengthened its position as a tech giant, earning billions of dollars annually and constantly looking to expand its place in the tech industry with its ongoing innovations (for example, the Metaverse).

Google

One of the oldest companies in the Big Five list, Google (now part of the Alphabet Inc. conglomerate), started as a search engine and quickly expanded its services to email (Gmail), cloud computing (Google Drive, Docs, and Sheets), and even navigation (Google Earth and Google Maps). And it didn’t stop there — Google continues to work on artificial intelligence tools (Gemini), mobile systems (Android OS and Google Pixel phones), and robotics to further advance itself in the tech field.

Amazon

Often considered the world’s biggest e-commerce company, Amazon has firmly established itself in the tech world. What started as an online marketplace for books now includes cloud computing (AWS), online streaming platforms (Prime Video), and even virtual assistants (Alexa, Echo). Amazon continues to make strides in the tech industry with constant research and development of AI, facial recognition software, robotics, and quantum computing.

Apple

In 2023, Apple Inc. earned almost $400 billion in revenue, making it the most profitable tech company in the world (while Amazon earned more, it’s often considered a retail company first). While Apple continues to produce iPhone and Mac computers, it also continues to try to break new ground in the augmented reality (AR) field (VisionPro technology) and machine learning.

The company even tried to take on the car industry by creating autonomous vehicles. However, as of February 2024, Apple abandoned the project and shifted its focus to generative AI projects.

Microsoft

Almost 50 years after its establishment, Microsoft is still a leader in the global tech industry. The company continues to work on its original goal — simplifying computing and making it accessible to users worldwide (with products such as Windows OS). In addition, the company has stepped more broadly into tech, investing time and money into AI and machine learning, cloud computing, sustainable technologies, and even video game industries (Xbox).

The acronyms of the Big Five tech companies

If you’re a fan of TV shows, then you may remember a legendary quote: "Why waste time say lot word when few word do trick?" When it comes to the Big Five and finance, this statement seems to be particularly accurate. Though, instead of "few word," investors use "few letter" to create simple and memorable acronyms.

For example, the most common acronym, introduced by Goldman Sachs, is “FAAMG,” which describes the stocks of Meta (META) (formerly known as Facebook (FB), Amazon (AMZN), Apple (AAPL), Microsoft (MSFT), and Alphabet (GOOG) (formerly known as Google). Some investors also use “GAFAM” when referring to these companies.

The power of Big Tech

Big Tech companies dominate the tech market. Therefore, it’s no surprise that these companies have enough power and influence to impact the industry as well as cause cultural, political, and societal changes.

Industry dominance

The Big Five’s success allows the companies to accumulate gigantic profits, translating into economic power and the ability to set trends for other tech companies. Huge financial capital also allows Big Five companies to gain the upper hand in researching and implementing the latest technologies.

Cultural influence

Social media is a huge part of our everyday lives and culture, largely thanks to Facebook, one of the first companies to invest heavily in this technology. Like Facebook, other Big Tech companies have introduced innovations that have profoundly impacted our culture and habits.

For example, Apple revolutionized personal technology with the iPhone, making smartphones an essential everyday gadget. Google’s cultural impact, among other things, resulted in a new verb, "googling," which can now be found in dictionaries. Microsoft has also been pivotal in business productivity through software solutions like Windows and Office. These companies have shaped industries and influenced how we live, work, and interact with the world.

Political influence

The profits of the Big Five are so substantial that they can overshadow the GDP of some smaller world countries. Naturally, with such wealth and influence, it’s evident that these companies try to lobby government agencies to pass or restrict regulations and policies that affect their operations (with Microsoft, Meta, Alphabet, and Amazon each spending more than $10 million on lobbying in 2023).

Additionally, some Big Tech companies (such as Facebook) control information flow and can influence political discourse and public opinion (for example, by censoring specific types of content).

Societal impact

It’s clear that Big Tech has an enormous presence in our everyday lives. As multinational companies, they create workplaces all over the world, boosting economies and building infrastructure (such as AI data centers all over the world).

However, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows. Since Big Tech companies manage millions of gigabytes of data, their misuse of sensitive user data has caused significant damage for clients and companies themselves (for example, exposing Facebook’s user data to malicious actors in Facebook Marketplace data leak).

Why does Big Tech need to be regulated?

If unchecked, the power of the Big Tech companies can bypass government regulation, create monopolies, exploit workers, and evade taxes.

Even with the focus on technology that benefits humanity, the Big Five companies are businesses that have financial obligations to their shareholders. Being a huge business can also put a target on the company’s back because malicious actors love nothing more than publicly embarrassing entities that consider themselves at the forefront of the technology industry.

Because of these threats, world governments and technology experts point out three major areas that require constant monitoring: safety, competition, and privacy.

Safety

Nowadays, cybersecurity is a constantly evolving topic. Two-factor authentication, biometrics, and face ID are but a few of the technologies implemented by tech companies to protect users and company data. However, the same technologies are also subject to debate about whether they are truly safe (for example, face ID safety still remains questionable) and can guarantee safety without violating privacy laws.

While users can implement some additional cybersecurity measures (such as surfing the internet while using a VPN), the scope of these tools is limited to platforms, operating systems, and applications that support them. It’s the responsibility of the Big Five and other tech companies to provide products and services that are safe and capable of maintaining high-security standards.

Competition

As the Big Five dominates the tech market, it’s easy to see how their power and influence can limit the competition and opportunities for smaller companies. While the industry leaders are still competing against each other, a merger between any of the Big Five companies (while unlikely to happen) could lead to a global tech monopoly.

Privacy

User data privacy and cybersecurity concerns are among the most discussed tech-related topics in recent years. From the most common social media privacy issues to scandals such as Cambridge Analytica, tech companies collect user data without restrictions and can misuse it, either inadvertently or on purpose, for financial gain.

The EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumers Privacy Act (CCPA) are the strongest regulatory documents so far, enabling users to opt out of providing their data to companies. However, with algorithms and AI technology constantly improving, we may face even bigger hurdles in regulating data privacy laws, such as managing the risks associated with deepfake technology.

Current government regulations for Big tech companies

The government’s relationship with Big Tech varies from country to country. While the US has the liberal, American, everything-goes approach, which in a way gave way to Big Tech’s dominance, European markets have gradually introduced legislation to curb its power in favor of transparency. The current government regulations for the Big tech companies include:

• The General Data Protection Regulation.
• HR 3825, The Ending Platform Monopolies Act.
• The EU’s investigations of Apple.
• Executive Order 14036, “Promoting Competition in the American Economy.”
• The Digital Services Act (DSA).
• The Digital Markets Act.
• Taiwan’s Internet Audiovisual Service Management Act.
• Fines on social media platforms.

The pros and cons of tech regulation

Freedom House published a few insights on governments’ drive to control Big Tech. Here are the best and worst practices of the government regulating the tech industries.

Best practices of tech regulation

• Forcing tech companies to be transparent in content moderation, advertising, and data usage.

• Enforcing strong encryption and privacy standards.

• Ensuring clear due process with regard to appeal (in case of legal disputes).

• Offering protections against intermediary liability.

• Fulfilling obligations tailored to match companies’ size.

Worst practices of tech regulation

• Pressuring companies such as Facebook to remove social, political, or religious content.

• Forcing companies to hand over data without a court order.

• Setting broad rules for data localization and retention.

• Enforcing mandates for automatic content moderation.

• Setting onerous requirements for in-country representatives and registration.