In recent years, there has been a surge in concerns regarding the dominance of Big Tech companies in the realm of social media. Moreover, as these tech giants expand, concerns about their influence on information flow and user data control intensify. The increasing concentration of power among a few major players like Facebook, Google, and Twitter has raised alarms among policymakers. Activists and the general public are also concerned.
A single trillion-dollar company controls Facebook, Instagram, Threads and WhatsApp. That concentration of digital ownership can create real-world harm, as a recent censorship dispute with Meta lays bare
Last week, Meta apologized after blocking links by a nonprofit newspaper and an independent journalist who published a report that criticized Facebook and accused it of suppressing posts related to climate change. Meta denied that it was censoring content and blamed an unspecified “security issue.”
During a single day, all of the Kansas Reflector’s approximately 6,000 Facebook posts vanished without explanation. For seven hours, attempts to share Reflector content on the platform were met with security warnings, leaving staff bewildered. This incident not only erased years of digital work but also tarnished the paper’s reputation, falsely implying malware risks to its audience. While most links were restored, one critical opinion piece about Facebook’s advertising policies remained absent.
Moreover, the data privacy implications of Big Tech dominance cannot be overlooked. As these companies amass vast amounts of user data, there are growing concerns about how this information is collected, stored, and utilized. Instances of data breaches and misuse have further eroded trust in Big Tech companies’ ability to safeguard user privacy.
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