Big Tech has always seen a scramble for the control of cyberspace with conglomerates gaining a massive foothold with hundreds of millions of users and becoming highly profitable. As such, the behemoths have a lot of impact on consumers and the economy.
This power means that people, economies, and nations are struggling to figure out how to combat these Big Tech companies. Antitrust laws aim to curb monopolies and maintain competitiveness, augment scrutiny of new mergers and be on the lookout for the anti-competitive strategies of Big Tech.
Whether or not Big Tech is too big and whether it has too much power seems to be a valid concern, especially as worries about infringement of privacy and surveillance capitalism abound. Will there be regulation in India that would impact these conglomerates and get them to amend their behaviour?
With the Indian government adopting technological capabilities, does this also mean there is unfettered access to layers and layers of personal data of Indian citizens that is largely unchecked?
It is hard to say how much time it would take for Big Tech to unentangle and disintegrate and whether it’s really worth it, according to Anisha Chand, partner, Khaitan & Co. Breaking up dominant entities will dilute their power, but it also means looking for viable purchasers because a part of that asset or business is given to another entity that would be an effective rival of the dominant party.
It may appear that some entities might be getting very big but a close look will show that green shoots of massive competition are coming in, contends Rahul Singh, partner, Khaitan & Co. Concerns surrounding technology are certainly genuine and they’ve been amplified more during the pandemic. However, the same forces of competition and capitalism are bringing in solutions. Singh said consumers can control what is happening around them, but it depends on their ability to pay for additional features such as privacy.
