The Big Four

The Big Four – also known as “GAFA” (Wiki citation) and “The Four Horsemen” (Wiki citation) – is the grouping of Google (Alphabet), Amazon, Facebook, and Apple. While other big tech companies, such as IBM and Microsoft, have been seen in other similar groupings, the Big Four all contain a specific characteristic that separates them from the pack: they are “driving the consumer revolution in the minds of the consumers” (Wiki citation). Through the use of artificial intelligence, data manipulation, and avoidance of legislative accountability, the Big Four are sculpting consumer behavior, persuading individuals to act in the best interest of their organization rather than the best interest of society (citation). Ethical concerns of the Big Four's antitrust behavior have been prevalent due to anti-competitive practices, data manipulation, and violation of user privacy rights.

Ethical Concerns: Antitrust

As international governments struggle to regulate these multinational corporations, the Big Four face many antitrust allegations. Antitrust is legislation that prevents or controls trusts and other monopolies from dominating the market in efforts to promote competition in business. (Oxford Languages citation)

Anti-competitive Practices

GAFA has been accused of anti-competitive misconduct that has allowed them to dominate the market and deter potential competitors (FTC citation). Their increasing usage of big data and machine learning in business practices has allowed GAFA to lock in users and reinforce network effects (Barise & Watkins). In turn, this has deterred market entry as competitors fear GAFA’s market dominance or are bought-out by GAFA before they have the chance to become a real competitor (Barise & Watkins).

Big Data & Privacy Violation

Like much of big tech, GAFA utilizes its user’s data and private information to predict trends, sculpt user behavior, influence public perceptions, and financial profit from selling this data to third parties. As predicted by French theorist Jean-Francois Lyotard, the commercialization of knowledge causes shifts in how knowledge and information are valued, and shapes social, political, and economic behaviors of society (Lyotard, 2004; Prainsack). The result of this data manipulation is a digital divide between those (GAFA and big tech) who capitalize on data and the users who provide the data (Prainsack; boyd & crawford).

However, some believe that because GAFA has designed the infrastructures and tools that make data usable, they hold the “moral right to profit from data” (B. Prainsack).