HHome office, video conferencing, online shopping, streaming media services, cloud computing-because of the new crown virus, more people than ever are intensively moving in the digital world. Large American technology companies in particular benefit from it: Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google and Microsoft. The Federal Cartel Office also determined that the pandemic has accelerated development that was identifiable before Corona-and brought greater power to large Internet companies. Their market value now exceeds 6 trillion US dollars, which is a multiple of the value of all listed companies in DAX.
“Large technology companies can act like unregulated monopolies,” Professor and American best-selling author Scott Galloway complained in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung Quarterly (“The Big Four-The Secret DNA of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google”) Tao. In his view, they endanger the market economy and democracy-and therefore should be broken.He will separate WhatsApp and Instagram from Facebook Amazon He will also open the lucrative Amazon Web Services and Apple Store to other developers’ applications.
It is said that the power of giants inhibits competition because they can control the conditions of the market they create, they stifle innovation, because potential competitors are “engulfed” in the early stages, and they threaten consumer privacy through unscrupulous greed for data— -And endanger democracy by manipulating opinions and promoting polarization.
Democracies don’t have to endure everything
From a European and German perspective, we discussed this issue with Konstanz Kurz in the new video interview series “Quarterly Talk”, as a spokesperson for the Chaos Computer Club and a member of the Netzpolitik.org editorial team He is a recognized Internet and a data protection expert. He has served as an expert in the Bundestag and the Federal Constitutional Court for many times.
In her opinion, the “big four” (Apple, Amazon, Google, Facebook) is active, the prospect of European competition: “They can all watch, maybe they will complain a little.”
Constanze Kurz pays particular attention to the possible impact of centralized corporate power (such as Google) on democratic communities: “What else can we know without this company? To what extent does it even give us insight into what we can know?” In particular, she believes that the possibility of manipulation of opinions is a danger. She believes that the proposal to split the company “is not wrong” because they point out that the way the world operates may be different from what we are currently experiencing: “I believe that democracies don’t have to endure everything about these companies.” In Germany, Kurz controls the authorities. “Absolutely understaffed, this is a mockery.” If you want a serious control, you must provide the appropriate equipment: “But it’s really a joke, and few people care about it.”
(By the way, Constanze Kurz has a very personal recommendation for daily online use: She always tapes the camera on the laptop to shut down-because IT is not safe: “Someone can access the camera without I know it. of. “)
