The dark side of the great

Internet the giants, through their business practices that include the use of tax incentives, privatization of resources, exploitation of labor and circumvention of laws, together with the concentration of power, capital and data, allow themselves the accumulation of enormous wealth and market dominance. Their "predatory" approach, which involves buying and destroying the competition, additionally causes criticism and raises questions about business ethics. And while these companies have contributed to the growth of the market, their influence often leads to social inequalities, stifling competition and endangering privacy and democracy. This is a text about that "dark" side of the great, big tech company.

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THE BIG FIVE

The term "Big Tech" is a colloquial term for technology giants, but it usually refers to the five largest technology companies in the United States, also known as the "Big Five": Alphabet (parent company of Google), Amazon, Apple, Meta (the umbrella house of Facebook ) and Microsoft. These companies have become synonymous with innovation, the digital economy and impact on the global market. Each of them plays an important role in shaping the way we communicate, buy, work and access information.

The total market value of the capital of these five corporations is 12.280 billion dollars and this sum is equivalent to an amount that makes up as much as 44 percent of the US gross domestic product. The value of just one company, such as Microsoft, which exceeds three trillion dollars, is equal to the annual gross domestic product of France, the seventh largest economy in the world. Currently, the richest company in the world is the leading manufacturer of graphics chips Nvidia, whose market value exceeds 3.500 billion dollars.

CONTRADICTION OF THE SYSTEM

Such corporate wealth has also created hyperrich individuals, and a recent report by Oxfam, an organization that fights against global inequality, reveals a devastating reality: as of 2020, the five richest people in the world - the owner of "Tesla" Elon Musk, the head of LVMH Bernard Arnault , owner of "Amazon" Jeff Bezos, co-founder of "Oracle" Larry Ellison and investor Warren Buffett - doubled their wealth, while at the same time almost five billion people around the world planet became even poorer. If these trends continue, it will take 230 years to eradicate poverty, while the first billionaire - a person whose cash balance exceeds one digit followed by 12 zeros - could become a reality in just a few years.

One recent oddity has caught the attention of the financial markets, as well as the media: the richest man in the world, Elon Musk, who supported Donald Trump in his presidential campaign, just one day after Trump won the election, increased his personal capital by $ 30 billion, the largest daily increase in wealth recorded so far. By the way, Musk will lead the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency in the administration of President Donald Trump, which raises concerns about possible conflicts of interest, considering that his companies already have lucrative contracts with the US government.

ABUSE OF POWER

Although they possess enormous wealth, big tech companies do not show commensurate responsibility, which leads to increasingly harsh criticism from the public. The main complaints leveled at these corporations are related to the abuse of market power, manipulation of content, dissemination of disinformation and mass collection of users' personal data. Also, big tech companies face criticism for their tax avoidance strategies, which minimize their liabilities in countries where they generate significant revenues.

In order to solve this problem, numerous global institutions, led by the OECD, the EU and the G20 countries, launched an initiative to introduce a minimum global tax rate of 15 percent, with the aim of reducing losses from unpaid taxes and transferring fabulous profits to accounts in tax havens. around the world. The tax strategies of the technological giants enabled the transfer of tens and hundreds of billions of dollars of capital to numerous tax havens, so these companies do not contribute to the public funds of the countries in which they operate. That is why the US Department of Finance recently proposed a new corporate minimum tax of 15 percent for the largest and most profitable corporations in that country, which currently pay an average tax rate of only 2,6 percent.

REGULATORY STRUGGLE

This joint pressure on the Internet giants represents a significant step towards more responsible behavior in tax matters and reducing the influence of corporations that have been using loopholes in the legislation for decades. So far, more than 140 countries in the world have signed an agreement on a global minimum tax of 15 percent on the profits of multinational companies.

However, even that amount of 15 percent of the minimum tax will still be well below the amount of corporate tax in the industrialized part of the world, where it is on average about 23,5 percent. That is why calls for a global tax reform with a minimum rate of 25 percent are becoming more frequent, because the current 15 percent is not enough to solve the problems of tax imbalance and tax evasion, while a higher rate would contribute to increasing the income of poorer countries and limiting aggressive tax strategies.

TAX OASES

For decades, certain countries, some of which, such as Luxembourg or Ireland and members of the European Union, have set extremely low taxes for multinational companies in their desire to attract foreign investors. By doing so, they actually enabled them to "choose" the amount of taxes they are willing to pay. Thus, Ireland, for example, gave the company "Apple" generous tax breaks for years, which allowed the American giant registered in that country to drop the tax rate on the entire European profit of this company to a measly 0,005 percent in 2014.

Although the European Commission asked the American giant to pay Ireland 2016 billion euros in back taxes back in 13, Apple and the Irish government jointly filed an appeal against the Commission's decision and ultimately won the dispute with Brussels. The Commission then filed an appeal against this decision, and in September of this year, the European Court of Justice ruled in favor of the European Commission, which means that "Apple" will still have to pay the back taxes with interest. Based on the experiences with Ireland and other tax havens, the proponents of the initiative to adopt the global minimum tax predicted the future obligation of large corporations to pay part of the profit tax in the country where they generate income, and not only in the country where they are officially registered.

MONOPOLY BEHAVIOR

Big tech companies are also accused of monopolizing the market. In August of this year, Google lost a key antitrust case against the US Department of Justice after a US federal judge ruled that the tech giant had built an illegal monopoly in the Internet search and advertising industry. During the trial, it was established that "Google" paid companies, including "Apple", more than 2021 billion dollars in 26 alone to remain the default search choice in the Safari browser. The US Department of Justice then asked the Federal Court to force Google to break up its business, in an effort to reduce the damage caused by Google's monopoly in the online search and advertising market. The epilogue of this case is not yet in sight.

Efforts for future regulations to encourage greater market competition and reduce the monopoly power of large technology corporations include investigations into Apple's App Store and Google Play, on suspicion that these companies are abusing their market position to set unfair conditions for app developers and users.

PREDATORY BUSINESS

Big tech companies use "predatory" business strategies that undermine competition, disrupt market balance and often violate ethical or legal norms. Examples of this behavior are numerous: aggressive takeover of competing firms, such as the cases in which "Facebook" and "Microsoft" bought smaller companies and startups in order to eliminate competition; copying articles and unfairly using their own algorithms and platforms, such as Amazon or Apple, which favor their products or services to the detriment of competitors; and the misuse of personal data in order to make a profit, regardless of the user's privacy and security, which is especially present with "Google" and "Facebook".

Leading technology players, often with the support of governments that provide them with numerous privileges, use market dominance to impose unfair terms or raise the prices of their products and services, which is considered a form of monopolistic behavior and market manipulation.

FAKE NEWS AND DISINFORMATION

Internet giants are often criticized for not being effective enough in fighting the spread of disinformation. They are accused that their algorithms favor content that polarizes the public and spreads fake news, and that these corporations are not doing enough to combat harmful posts and content. The X social network, formerly known as Twitter, has faced the most criticism of any digital platform for spreading misinformation, manipulating public opinion, and content moderation issues. Although it was conceived as a platform for the rapid exchange of information, it was often used to spread fake news, conspiracy theories and manipulation during political and social events.

And the growing influence of artificial intelligence has led numerous Internet players to establish an "industry alliance" with the aim of jointly developing detection and identification tools and techniques. deepfake content on the Internet. In February of this year, twenty leading technology companies, including Adobe, Microsoft, Google, Meta and artificial intelligence leader OpenAI, formed an alliance aimed at developing tools to identify, flag and remove manipulated audio-video content and images of public figures and politicians, in order to prevent potential fraud in elections around the world.

The media and digital industries face numerous legal, security and ethical challenges brought about by the accelerated penetration of artificial intelligence. In addition, its further development requires enormous energy resources, which calls sustainability into question, while the technological progress of VI surpasses the existing legal frameworks of the vast majority of countries. Numerous studies warn that it is necessary to harmonize the progress of technology with a responsible approach to its development in order for artificial intelligence to ultimately bring a tangible benefit to society.

WAGE GAP

Big tech companies are often criticized for poor working conditions for many of their employees, especially those working in temporary jobs or in supply chains. These workers, typically employed in warehouse, technical support and generally lower-skilled positions, face low wages, poor working conditions, lack of job security or access to adequate health insurance. On the other hand, the directors of these companies enjoy numerous privileges and astronomical salaries and bonuses, which creates a sharp contradiction in relation to the working conditions at the lower levels of the organization.

This pay and privilege gap raises concerns about the ethics of business practices and the social responsibility of large tech firms. For example, in the year 2023, the salary of CEOs in the USA was on average as much as 290 times higher than the salary of an ordinary worker, while in 1965 they earned 21 times more than the average employee.

WOKE & CANCEL CULTURE

Big tech companies like Google, Meta (Facebook, Instagram), Apple, Microsoft, and Twitter (X) are often associated with mainstream Western "woke" politics for their initiatives to promote diversity, inclusiveness and fighting against discrimination, as well as supporting issues such as the rights of the LGBTQ+ community and gender equality. However, these companies have also been criticized for their content moderation policies, which include removing posts or blocking accounts deemed offensive and politically incorrect, often perceived as a form of "cancel" culture. These practices, which involve the public ostracism of individuals or organizations for not conforming to certain norms, provoke a debate about freedom of speech and the influence of these companies on social dialogue.

Also, other large companies, including "Netflix" and "Disney", are facing increasingly loud criticism from the public for exaggeration in the "woke" and "cancel" cultures. These practices are now becoming the dominant narratives of Western liberal ideology imposed on the world, limiting freedom of expression and suppressing different cultural, social and political patterns and perspectives.

HOW TO FURTHER

All the above indicators indicate that the excessive concentration of global corporate power further deepens economic inequality. The influence of the super-rich on economic trends is also visible through media reports that say that today seven of the world's ten largest corporations are led either by billionaires as CEOs or as major shareholders. One of the solutions is to disempower billionaires and reduce their influence on global economic trends. That task would have to be in the hands of responsible governments, and effective regulation and reform – for starters, of the all-powerful technology sector – are key to redistributing resources and reducing the dominance of big capital interests.

Also, by promoting innovation and supporting smaller firms, as well as developing open and decentralized technologies, the excessive influence of large technology players can be reduced. Educating users about their rights and choices also plays an important role. In this way, the foundations for a more stable global economy and a fairer and more balanced world would be created.