Opinion | China joins other governments in seeing the dark side of big tech. Or has it?
- The world is just waking up to the reality that tech businesses want to make money above anything else, like other companies
- However, in China, it’s government backing that has allowed tech monopolies to develop and thrive in the first place
The problems with tech giants are far more complicated than just conventional monopolistic practices, though. Their damage to the world is far more than just higher prices, and governments must develop tools to rein them in.
The world is enamoured of technology, believing that anything tech would do good for the world. That misconception is why bad practices, even the obvious underhanded dealings between Apple and Google, have not been looked at seriously.
The world is just waking up to the reality that tech businesses want to make money above anything else, just like traditional businesses; that not all technology is good for the world; and that some technology could do evil the world hasn’t seen before. As the discussions about tech companies become more realistic, governments might catch up with the out-of-control tech world.
02:06
Facebook, Amazon, Google and Apple respond to Congress about whether China steals US technology
Disruption is the word for tech companies. It means that traditional businesses can be taken over by people who use the internet. The assumption is that this is always good. The reality is not so. Tech companies often use subsidies to drive out competition and convince financial markets that they would make tons of money when they are monopolies.