After years of abusing their monopoly power, the Big Tech giants are slowly falling into a trap of their own making. Governments around the world including India, the US, countries in the European Union, South Korea, Australia, and Indonesia among others are taking action against the tech giants to restore democracy in the internet ecosystem. Questioning their monopolistic practices.
Monopolistic practices such as denial of fair payment for news, forming cartels to eliminate competitors, opaque and arbitrary business practices, misuse of app and payment marketplaces, and misuse of consumer data. The tendency to dominate the entire internet space has been the dark legacy of a handful of tech companies that have come under scrutiny today.
Google, which has been at the forefront of these tasks, is now mired in several antitrust lawsuits and financial penalties. In India, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) has imposed two fines totaling Rs 2,274 crore on the Alphabet-owned company for allegedly abusing its position in the Android OS and Android mobile app storage space. CCI is probing Google in the third case.
The CCI is also investigating Google based on complaints lodged by the Indian News Paper Association (INA), News Broadcasters and Digital Association (NBDA), and Digital News Publishers Association (DNPA) in the past. Their complaints are about not sharing their revenue with domestic news media companies in India despite displaying their published content on Google News Feed.
A DNPA source said, “Google has never shared the exact revenue for the news they publish with the country's major news organizations. The day is not far when the laws of the country will not allow Big Tech players to abuse their monopoly as they have done in the past. DNPA is the rights group of the digital arm of Indian media houses.
Minister of State for IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar has said that India's decision to stop such practices of big tech giants will require making laws and regulations. Chandrashekhar, the ministry is studying IT regulations of at least 20 countries to create a bulletproof digital landscape.
It will protect the rights of India's netizens, digital news media, and other stakeholders. It is being said that the IT Act 2000 will soon be replaced by the Digital India Act. Its draft framework could be rolled out in 2023.
Preparations are underway to introduce two bills in the US namely 'The American Innovation and Choice Online Act' and 'The open App Markets Act'. These bills are being brought in to prevent tech giants from misusing their powers.
If these bills are passed, they would become the strongest legislation ever to target the dominance of Big Tech in America. Earlier in August, lawmakers introduced a landmark bill that would enable news media entities to negotiate a revenue-sharing model with tech giants such as Google and Facebook.
The European Union has also announced that it is on a mission to create a crack team of 40 experts that will help enforce stronger Digital Markets Act (DMA) rules to prevent Big Tech firms from abusing their powers.
The list of tech giants includes Alphabet (owner of Google, YouTube, Android OS, etc.), Meta Platform (owner of Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, etc.), Apple (owner of iPhone, Mac, App Store, etc.), Amazon (a shopping platform, owner of AWS, Twitch, Prime, etc.), Microsoft (owner of Windows, Office, Skype, Xbox, etc.), Twitter, and a few others.
