Tech giants like Google, Amazon made billions through US military contracts during ‘war on terror’: report

The ‘Big Tech Sells War’ report documented an explosion of government contracts with Amazon, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Twitter since 2004

It said Microsoft had benefited from a leap in defence deals during the Trump administration

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People walk past the 9/11 Memorial in Weehawken, New York. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 8:35pm, 10 Sep 2021Updated: 8:35pm, 10 Sep 2021

Tech giants made billions through contracts with the US military and other government agencies during the so-called “war on terror”, according to a report released ahead of the 20th anniversary of 9/11.

The “Big Tech Sells War” report, published on Thursday by three US campaign groups, documented an explosion of government contracts with Amazon, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Twitter since 2004.

The tech companies’ contracts were “primarily with agencies central to the War on Terror,” said the report.

“From 2004 to today, Big Tech corporations have seen a huge climb in federal demand for their services, particularly from the Pentagon and Department of Homeland Security,” it said.

The demand from US military and intelligence agencies for cloud computing and GPS software has surged since 2001 as the defence industry has grown increasingly digitised.

The Department of Defence alone has spent US$43.8 billion on Big Tech contracts since 2004, said the report, a collaboration between the Action Center on Race and the Economy and social justice groups LittleSis and MPower Change.