How we survive big tech overlords

The internet is arguably one of humanity’s greatest inventions – it’s right up there alongside the plough, toilets, democracy and The Tomatan (a humanoid tomato-dispensing robot for runners designed to combat fatigue. Yes, we even got that one covered!)

Even though we have more information and connections at our fingertips than any human generation before us, it has blown up in our faces. Digitization has turned our world upside down, and believe it or not: it’s not all good. 

The digitization permeates every sphere of our lives. It’s like a new industrial revolution in digital format, but quite like the old industrial revolution, capitalism has managed to put  us on a leash.

The CEO of Accord Hotels, Sebastian Bazin, described it like this: ‘We are going through an industry mutation – it’s not only a transformation. It’s a mutation.’  referring to Booking.com, that he considers to have reshaped the hotel industry – a tendency that can be seen everywhere. 

When we talk about the downsides of digitization, Amazon often pops up. The largest e-commerce platform in the world that has managed to crush competition and gauge prices. And how did they succeed? Underpaying workers, of course!, Gruelling labour conditions and union busting have seemingly become the tech giant’s modus operandi. Amazon’s increased volume of deliveries also brings with it a lot of extra pollution and waste. The company poses a lot of ethical, economical and ecological questions.

But Amazon is not alone. They are one of the five largest IT Companies dominating the world, together with Apple, Meta, Microsoft and Alphabet (the parent company of Google). Even if you haven’t heard about these giants, you’re using them. 

So how did the internet evolve from independent hobby bloggers and self-help forums into today’s Big Tech madness? 

The term Big Tech started circulating around the year 2013, when economists warned that the lack of regulation could lead to a concentration of power in digital markets. In the aftermath of the 2007-2008 financial crisis, conventional business models were struggling, digital advertising and retail made a strike, colonizing these fields among an upcoming generation – millennials.

The term gained a newly sinister tone following the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 US elections, when illicit trade of user data gave the companies the opportunity to influence political decisions.

Clearly, Big Tech amassed a lot of power. And the real question is: WHO holds that power?

Okay, Mark Zuckerberg doesn’t single-handedly hold digitization in his hands, but he is the 4th richest man on earth, Co-Founder of Facebook and Meta Platforms, including Instagram and WhatsApp. He is definitely one of the key players in this game. Other people you might want to keep track of are Tim Cook for Apple, Satya Nadella for Microsoft, Sundar Pichai for Alphabet, and Andy Jassy for Amazon.

The current Big Tech reign works with business models based on hijacking your attention, creating dependencies and selling your data to advertisers.

But attention is not really a currency, now, is it? There is one simple truth for Big tech companies when it comes to our attention: It’ll never be enough!

Maybe these companies should go to therapy instead of employing psychologists to find algorithms to create even deeper user attachments.

So how to regulate the tech giant’s power? The US has long been reluctant to thoroughly regulate digital business. Back in the 90s, this attitude was meant to encourage a new industry to grow. Today it’s a crippling shortfall.

The EU, however, is a sucker for regulation and leads the way in customer protections, data and security regulations, and is now hoping to intervene in the field of digital politics even deeper in their new cycle.

So this time we went to Brussels to sit down with the people who shape these policies – in the European Parliament’s own studio. 

Alice Stollmeyer is the Founder and Executive Director of Defend Democracy. A former policy adviser and digital strategist, she now works on democracy, technology and sharp power, also known as hybrid threats.

Christian Ehler is a German politician who has been serving as a Member of the European Parliament since 2004 representing the European People’s Party. Since 2022, he has been chairing the parliament’s Panel for the Future of Science and Technology, called STOA. He doesn’t seem to be stoic about Big Tech, though, and he’s the one who invited us to the Parliament in the first place.

Karen Melchior is a Danish politician and an outgoing member of the European Parliament 2019-2024. She has served as part of Renew Europe, the third-largest political group in the European Parliament.

Standard Time talk show S2E05: How we survive big tech overlords

Creative team

Réka Kinga Papp anchor

Daniela Univazo writer-editor

Merve Akyel  art director, Eurozine

Szilvia Pintér producer

Priyanka Hutschenreiter project manager

Julia Sobota captions and translations

Zsófia Gabriella Papp digital producer

Management

Judit Csikós  finance

Réka Kinga Papp  editor-in-chief

Csilla Nagyné Kardos office administration

Video Crew 

Voxbox Multimedia Studios in Brussels

Gergely Áron Pápai photography

Postproduction

Nóra Ruszkai video editor

István Nagy lead video editor

Milán Golovics dialogue editor

Art

Victor Maria Lima animation

Crypt-of-Insomnia theme music

Hosted by 

The European Parlament in Brussels

Links : 

The Tomatan, An Humanoid Tomato-Dispensing Robot For Runners Designed to Combat Fatigue

Digital Leadership vs Digital Transformation | Nelson Phillips | TEDxHessle

Amazon Workers Say They Struggle to Afford Food and Rent

https://www.pressrelations.com/files/de/prmagazin/prmagazin_1906_TheBigFive.pdf

Big Tech’s Overpowering Influence: Risks To Markets And Your Money

Social media influences our political behaviour and puts pressure on our democracies, new report finds

Here’s What We Know So Far About Russia’s 2016 Meddling 

Quality Time, Brought to You by Big Tech

The Influence of Social Media Algorithms on Internet User Behavior

Tech companies use “persuasive design” to get us hooked. Psychologists say it’s unethical.