Is Big Tech Out of Control?

The Briefing Room

Are big technology companies out of control, as their rapid growth and influence has made them too big to fail?

David Aaronovitch asks if companies such as Facebook, Google and Amazon can be reined in and explores a range of issues including innovation, data, privacy, competition and security.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has said his company will hand over to US investigators more than 3,000 advertisements bought by groups with links to Russia – and the Washington Post reported that President Obama had previously warned Mr Zuckerberg about the threat of fake news and political disinformation.

On this side of the Atlantic, another tech company - Uber – is now in big trouble with Transport For London over its license to operate in the capital, claiming the company was not “fit and proper”, citing major concerns about its approach to reporting criminal offences and carrying out background checks on drivers.

Both cases, and a plethora of others, have raised questions about the way big technology firms operate, and while they arguably bring immeasurable benefits to us in our everyday lives, governments have struggled to keep up with what they’re up to.

CONTRIBUTORS

Jamie Bartlett, technology writer and author of Radicals: Outsiders Changing the World

Jonathan Taplin, author of Move Fast and Break Things

Eileen Burbidge, Chair of Tech City UK

Rana Foroohar, Financial Times columnist and author of Makers and Takers