There appears to be a simultaneous crackdown on Big Tech in China, Europe and USA. The reasons and severity are, however, (very) different. Nevertheless, these crackdowns are related to the decoupling of business (eg, Big Tech) and politics. See my blogs on coupling-decoupling, and in particular: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4 and part 5.
In China, the political elite wants to reign in the growing power of its relatively (very) small private business sector. In Europe, politicians are mainly worried by Big Tech’s abuse (or: use) of our data for increasing their profits. In USA, Big Tech is the subject of a bipartisan political debate. Both sides want to regulate its power (eg, break-up of Facebook).
The Big Tech crackdown in China is the most interesting one from a micro-macro perspective. A successful (micro) crackdown on Chinese Big Tech should jeopardize its (macro) ambition in becoming the main global superpower:
“A very well-established economic literature maintains that state-owned enterprises (SOEs) are inefficient as compared to privately owned ones (POEs)”. T&F Online
The public disappearance of Chinese entrepreneur Jack Ma, and his alleged political re-education, is a textbook example of political interference in the private business sector.
Currently, American businesses are showing their power by cutting off donations to the Republican Party, following the recent storming of the US Capitol (eg, Axios, CNN, DW, Fox). The global dominance of USA is (now) rooted in technology, while its politics is a global laughing-stock.
To a large extent, European Big Tech is a contradictio in terminis and almost non-existent, following typical European views on issues like overtime, profit maximization, remuneration, and tax evasion. These issues represent differences between Europe and USA in ideology vs pragmatism. The EU is mainly busy regulating the American Big Tech sector.
I think, feel and believe that efforts to regulate Big tech are examples of too little, too late. Most people need, want and believe in technology. Most people do not need or want politics. Politics is more and more viewed as redundant. Also see my 2020 blog: The redundancy of politics.
Don’t Bring Me Down (1979) by Electric Light Orchestra
artists, lyrics, video, Wiki-1, Wiki-2
Note: all markings (bold, italic, underlining) by LO unless stated otherwise.
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