During his speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, George Soros argued - with a theory of his own - that the end of big hi-tech technology is not that far.
He claims that big companies such as Facebook and Google, by having profoundly influenced society, have now become a threat; these companies are able to threaten freedom of thought and for this reason damage democracy and enslave people’s minds. The Hungarian tycoon is not the only one criticizing the situation, several heads of state and leaders of large companies have reversed themselves (aka Techlash) on the issue.
Soros argued that these companies are not only hazardous to freedom of thought but also “obstacles to innovation” - a thesis long advocated by European competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager - because they are limiting the potential development of competitors in the market. Moreover, to this day, these companies are so large that they can be defined as public utilities and consequently should abide by stricter and more restrictive rules aimed at preserving competition, innovation, and a universal, fair and open access to information.
Addiction. This is the keyword of the speech of Soros in Davos. These big companies manipulate, on purpose, people’s attention with the scope of reaching their own business purposes by creating, for this reason, as much dependence as possible.
The web is like a giant casino, says Soros. Just as the casinos have created situations to not let people leave, and spend even more of what they have, the big companies have developed algorithms able to create addiction. Besides addiction, he adds anomie: social media have created situations where people give up their intellectual autonomy to favor the ideologies shared by the web biggies’.
“There could be an alliance between the new nationalistic ambitions of the states, and the big technological monopolies, so rich in data that they could create surveillance instruments -which may suit someone”. It’s an Orwellian view, but it’s possible. Soros argued that thanks to the web it is easier to control individuals and so promote the proliferation of totalitarianism.
Concluding his speech, he drew correlations between the growing business of technology companies and the increase of disparity in the population; adding then that Facebook and Google profits are "the result of a deliberate strategy to avoid responsibility for the content being publicized."
And finally the prediction: the music is about to change. “the owners of the platform giants consider themselves as masters of the universe, when really they are slaves of the necessity to maintain their predominant position”, he stated.
“It’s just a matter of time before the global dominance in the U.S. monopolies over information technology is broken. In my opinion, Davos is a good place to make an announcement: their days are numbered, the regulation and taxation will be their ruin, and the European competition commissioner will become their nemesis”.
The thesis is not that new, and apart from the authentic motivations of Soros - about there would be a lot to say - one fact remains: Vestager has championed a battle toward the big ones of Silicon Valley, by imposing Google a fee of 1.3 Million dollars, pushing Apple to pay tax in Europe without bypass them with the “Double Irish with Dutch Sandwich” system. Europe, which represents a fundamental market for tech companies, can play a decisive role in deciding their fate. Taxation, processing of users' personal data, and e-commerce are the main topics of discussion. With Europe determined to no longer passively accept the technological waves coming from the USA; with France and Germany building up innovative ecosystems capable of producing companies that could easily compete with Silicon Valley and raise billions in investment; with China, keeping the doors closed to Facebook, Google and co., preferring to create their own virtual realities, in fact, something could change in the next few years.