Rein in Big Tech

Take action to challenge the power of Big Tech.

lady justice holding scales in front of the supreme court

Latest Resources

POLITICO: How States Can Keep Big Tech from Dominating AI

03. 13. 2024

Visit resource page: POLITICO: How States Can Keep Big Tech from Dominating AI

ABC NEWS: What to know about landmark AI regulations proposed in California

02. 10. 2024

Visit resource page: ABC NEWS: What to know about landmark AI regulations proposed in California

Antimonopoly in the Age of AI: A Conversation with Chris Hughes and Ganesh Sitaraman

10. 25. 2023

Visit resource page: Antimonopoly in the Age of AI: A Conversation with Chris Hughes and Ganesh Sitaraman

Bold New Consensus

11. 02. 2023

Visit resource page: Bold New Consensus

Event Highlights: Antimonopoly in a New Political Economy

10. 11. 2022

Visit resource page: Event Highlights: Antimonopoly in a New Political Economy

THE VERGE – This browser extension shows what the Internet would look like without Big Tech

02. 24. 2021

Visit resource page: THE VERGE – This browser extension shows what the Internet would look like without Big Tech
Vision

Vision

We’re renewing democracy in the digital economy to promote fair markets where users, small business leaders, workers, and communities of color can thrive, not just monopolies.

The Challenge

The Challenge

Digital platforms are transforming how we interact with the world, but the dynamics of the digital economy — where companies have incentives to vertically integrate across markets and consolidate economic power and data to achieve economies of scale and network effects — have also given rise to a few dominant players with immense private power. And it’s not just a matter of sheer market power, either. This economic power often translates into power over our democracy and society. When they hold so much unprecedented power over so much virtual real estate, it precludes any real competition.

Some of these digital platforms — Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Apple — were the focus of a thorough 16-month investigation by Congress into the competitive dynamics of digital markets, led by the House Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee. In October 2020, the investigation culminated in a 450-page report outlining how Big Tech’s dominance in cloud computing, digital advertising, and other markets enables them to unfairly distort markets, rig the rules, and pick winners and losers.


One of the report’s major conclusions is that these platforms have such outsized market power that we need new rules and legislation to address these structural inequities, because our economic system is skewing the incentives toward accumulating monopoly power.

What We Do

What We Do

To counter concentrated power in the digital economy, we educate the public on the monopoly problem; run creative, sharp campaigns focused on antimonopoly action; and support the field to integrate an antimonopoly approach into tech policy.

Our Big Tech Detective browser extension lets users see for themselves how much of the internet’s infrastructure Big Tech controls. Inspired by investigative journalist Kashmir Hill’s “Goodbye Big Five” series in Gizmodo, we worked with Alden Rivendale Jones, Dhruv Mehrotra (who had worked with Hill on the original series), and Emily Lin to scale up the tool and temporarily cut off Big Tech’s access to our digital lives.