Category Archives: Big Tech

Under pressure to come up with a conservative approach to holding Big Tech companies accountable, House Republicans announced on Wednesday an agenda that would make it easier to break up tech companies in court and challenge unfair censorship.

House Judiciary Committee Republicans, led by ranking member Jim Jordan of Ohio, said their agenda would speed up and strengthen antitrust enforcement, hold Big Tech accountable for censorship, and increase transparency around tech companies' content moderation decisions.

The proposals in the agenda will be introduced as legislation in the coming weeks by House Judiciary Republicans after they consult House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California and other top Republicans.

Big Tech has targeted conservatives for far too long. House Judiciary Republicans have had enough," Jordan told the Washington Examiner.

"We believe that this agenda will serve as the Republican platform to take on Big Tech going forward and unite our party to reject Big Techs cancel culture practices," he added.

APPLE APPS, GOOGLE SEARCH, AND AMAZON BASICS FACE DRASTIC CHANGES FROM BIPARTISAN HOUSE ANTITRUST BILL

The Republican agenda is meant to provide an alternative to the six bipartisan anti-Big Tech bills passed in June by the Judiciary Committee that many Republicans, including Jordan and McCarthy, oppose.

They claim the bills, six sweeping antitrust bills aimed at reining in tech companies such as Apple, Amazon, Google, and Facebook, fail to address the censorship of conservatives.

Instead, the House Judiciary Republican agenda suggests proposals to make it easier to seek legal remedies against Big Tech companies' content moderation decisions by allowing individuals to sue the companies for censorship and overhaul the tech companies' tech liability protections.

Republicans want to amend Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996, the controversial law that gives online platforms legal immunity for third-party content, to ensure content moderation decisions "are done in good faith, based on objectively reasonable criteria," according to the Big Tech agenda document obtained by the Washington Examiner.

Story continues

The Republicans will introduce a proposal to require that large social media platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter, make their content moderation decision and censorship actions publicly available and force them to pay a "massive fine," the agenda said, for failing to do so.

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The Republican agenda also proposes making it easier to break up the Big Tech companies altogether by expediting trial court consideration of antitrust cases and empowering state attorneys general to utilize the same fast-track legal procedures available to the federal government.

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Tags: News, Policy, Big Tech, Jim Jordan, House Judiciary Committee, House Republicans, Kevin McCarthy, Censorship, Monopoly, Antitrust, Section 230

Original Author: Nihal Krishan

Original Location: House Republicans unveil legislative plan to break up Big Tech and stop censorship

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House Republicans unveil legislative plan to break up Big Tech and stop censorship - Yahoo News

Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday announced that he will lead class-action lawsuits against Twitter, Google and Facebook over alleged censorship, declaring that "big tech is out of control" and is functioning as "the de-facto censorship arm of the U.S. government."

"While the social media companies are officially private entities, in recent years they have ceased to be private with the enactment and their historical use of Section 230, which profoundly protects them from liability," Trump said as he announced the lawsuits in conjunction with the America First Policy Institute.

TRUMP TO SUE FACEBOOK, TWITTER, GOOGLE OVER ALLEGED CENSORSHIP, SAYS THEY'VE CEASED TO BE PRIVATE

"It is in effect a massive government subsidy, these companies have been co-opted, coerced and weaponized by government actors to become the enforcers of illegal, unconstitutional censorship," Trump added.

Trump was booted from Twitter, Facebook and Google's YouTube earlier this year after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol by a mob of his supporters. The companies said that his false claims that the presidential election risked future violence. But Trump's supporters say that the companies are engaging in politically-motivated censorship.

Trump's suit likely faces an uphill battle, according to experts, who say the First Amendment can't apply to private companies, even if they do benefit from government policies like Section 230.

"I don't think the lawsuit has much chance of success because it first and foremost accuses the companies of violating the U.S. Constitution, and the U.S. Constitution only restricts government," Vanderbilt Law School Professor Brian Fitzpatrick told Fox News. "It does not restrict what private parties can and cannot do."

Former President Donald Trump speaks at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J., Wednesday, July 7, 2021. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig) (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

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In response to Trump's argument that the companies are essentially public because of Section 230, Fitzpatrick said, "All of us benefit in some way from some law but that does not transform all of us into the government It has zero chance of success. I think it's mainly for publicity, it's not to get real relief in a court."

But Trump nevertheless warned that the power of social media companies is growing to be too great.

"There is no better evidence that big tech is out of control than the fact that they banned the sitting president of the United States earlier this year," Trump added. "If they can do it to me they can do it to anyone."

Read Trump's lawsuit against Twitter HERE, the lawsuit against Facebook HERE, and his lawsuit against Google HERE.

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READ IT: Trump lawsuits against Twitter, Facebook, Google over alleged big tech censorship - Fox News

Cable news networks CNN and MSNBC declined to air Donald Trumps press conference announcing a class action lawsuit against Silicon Valleys tech giants while Fox News cut away before the former president began reliving his list of grievances over the election, the Capitol riot and Hunter Bidens laptop.

Right-wing cable station Newsmax TV continued covering the press conference in full.

The broadcaster double-downed on its coverage of the event, promoting an upcoming interview with Mr Trump to discuss the lawsuit later on Wednesday.

Mr Trump announced the class-action lawsuit against the three major tech giants and their respective CEOs Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Dorsey, and Sundar Pichai over what he called blatant violations of the constitution.

Facebook, Twitter and Google kicked Mr Trump off their platforms in the wake of the Capitol riot by a mob of his supporters on 6 January.

The former president announced he would be the lead plaintiff representing a group of broader people he argues have had their First Amendment rights violated.

The major networks began cutting away from Mr Trump, or completely ignoring him, following his election loss to Joe Biden on 3 November last year. ABC, CBS and NBC all cut short the presidents White House address to the nation as he claimed the presidential election was being stolen.

MSNBC cut away during the 5 November address while CNN aired it in full before anchor Anderson Cooper called Mr Trump an obese turtle on his back, flailing in the hot sun realising his time was over.

Since that moment, networks have continued to scale back on their unfettered live airing of Mr Trumps speeches and announcements, with even Fox News becoming more judicious in covering his remarks after leaving office.

Silicon Valley, meanwhile, completely memory-holed the ex-presidents accounts following the 6 January Capitol riots, leading to todays class-action lawsuit.

After an hour-long criticism of Silicon Valley that was mostly ignored by the major broadcasters, Mr Trump ended his press conference bemoaning the mainstream media and network news not covering whats going on, pointing to the violence and people being killed on a weekly basis in Democrat-run cities.

Why youre not talking about it, youre not helping Biden, youre not helping the Democrats, youre hurting the country, Mr Trump said of the media.

If the people dont hear this youll never be able to solve the problem The loss of human life on a weekly basis and you turn on these major newscasts and a lot of people are watching and its not even mentioned, you have to change, youve got to get your credibility back, you dont have the credibility, you have to get it back.

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CNN and MSNBC ignore Trump press conference on big tech lawsuit while Fox News cuts away - The Independent

In the battle of China tech versus U.S. tech, there's been one clear winner this year.

The technology giants in the U.S. are back at their recent highs, up 15% in 2021, while the CQQQ China tech ETF is lower. Tech names on the mainland continue to struggle as Beijing cracks down on companies such as Alibaba in an anti-monopoly push.

So, should investors stick with the winners in the U.S. or bet on the underdogs in Chinese tech?

The answer depends on the reasoning behind China's latest moves, according to Gina Sanchez, CEO of Chantico Global and chief market strategist at Lido Advisors.

"If this is truly just an antitrust, anti-competitiveness push, then you can argue that a lot of the bad news is really priced in to these stocks. They have just gotten pummeled and the top stocks in the CQQQ are all well below their five-year and 10-year P/E levels which is to say they could look very attractive," Sanchez told CNBC's "Trading Nation" on Thursday.

The CQQQ ETF, which holds stocks such as Tencent and Bilibili, trades at 27 times trailing earnings. In February, it hit a peak of 52 times.

"If this is more than that, if this is a matter of the Chinese government expressing its desire to have key corporates go along with their social agenda, then this could actually morph into something bigger," said Sanchez.

China's five-year plan, she pointed out, aims to strengthen the domestic base, broadening wealth creation and boosting consumption power. This could put pressure on its domestic tech companies, she said.

"If this is actually a move to force wages higher, to force broader wealth sharing and to force wealth creation, then in fact the margins that we've seen in these companies could actually be changing and the business model could be changing and the PEs that we've been used to may no longer be as applicable," said Sanchez. "That's the risk that we're playing right now."

Matt Maley, chief market strategist at Miller Tabak, agreed that long-term issues remain for Chinese tech stocks. However, after weakness in the first half of the year, they could be due for a short-term bounce.

"Looking at the chart of the CQQQ, it's formed an inverse head-and-shoulders pattern. Of course, a head-and-shoulders pattern tends to be a bearish one so an inverse head-and-shoulders pattern is a bullish one," Maley said during the same segment.

"It has to break that neckline that's up at the $85 level. if we can break above that level, it would surprise a few people, catch them off sides and cause the China tech stocks to outperform for a couple of months," said Maley.

The CQQQ ETF traded just above $81 a share on Friday. It would need to rally 5% to get to $85.

Disclaimer

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Bet on Big Tech in the U.S. or China? Traders stake their claims - CNBC

The global pandemic has pushed us all indoors and further online. We work, learn, live and play in virtual spaces and digital communities. We spend time with friends via a screen and a Zoom filter and explore fictional and ancient worlds on gaming or e-learning platforms. Video game worlds have become so much more than play, with players hanging out in lobbies and splurging billions on the latest skins and avatar mods, or enjoying concerts in virtual reality. Cryptocurrency-backed digital artworks such as BEEPLEs record-breaking Everydays: the First 5000 Days witnessed a sudden boom, and burst into the mainstream. We are marching toward what author Neal Stephenson called the Metaverse: a global, interconnected galaxy of virtual worlds, avatars, online communities, and mixed reality. Stephenson first conceived the Metaverse in 1992 in his novel Snow Crash, now widely considered a science fiction classic. More and more, this concept is leaving the realm of sci-fi, and entering our current reality.

But curb your enthusiasm. As things stand, this new reality is already shaping up along the familiar, proprietary, monopolistic lines that have characterised and dogged the most recent phase of the internets evolution. The platforms where the Metaverse is being created have become walled gardens, increasingly centralised and controlled by corporate interests. Facebook owns WhatsApp, Instagram and Oculus, giving them ownership of our friends, our behaviour, our gait, eye movement and emotional state. Google, Amazon and Apple all are vying to build the next dominant VR and gaming platforms, hoping to build upon their data dominance and entrenched market positions.

That is no small risk. Our past reluctance to challenge the dangers of black-box algorithms, opaque curation systems and predatory privacy practices has already brought the world a splurge of disinformation and manipulation, the rise of pernicious conspiracy theories and the triumph of surveillance capitalism. As we enter the age of the Metaverse we are sleepwalking into a future where continuing to ignore these red flags could be catastrophic where the true danger is not just that we are known, but that we can be led.

Virtual reality developers will be familiar with the concept of redirected walking a clever technique to cause a player to walk in circles while thinking they are walking in a straight line. It allows you to explore huge dungeons in the comfort of your living room without ever walking into the wall, as you are nudged in the directions the game developers want you to take. Its classic misdirection, and surprisingly easy to do a little visual nudge here, an audio cue there and before you know it, you're facing the way you came without ever realising you've been turned around.

In the same way, what we see, who we speak to, and what we learn is being manipulated every day, turning our opinions this way and that. Facebook decides which of our friends we keep track of and what news we see; Twitter and YouTube control who is recommended, who is monetised, and who gets de-platformed; Google orchestrates the direction and spin of our search results. As movement-tracking, eye-tracking, neural input and biometrics are integrated to enrich our experience in the Metaverse, these platforms will become even more deft at inferring our moods and use them to manipulate our opinions, sources of information and community in real time.

As that data is collected, shared, sold and inevitably hacked, it will be weaponised by those seeking profit or new ways to hurt or intimidate by ruthless advertisers, hateful trolls and malicious state actors. Social media and voice assistant data will allow predators to graduate from text-chat to deepfake videos of grandma Facetiming our children to have them unlock the front door. Todays Twitter harassment pales against the future ability to target Jewish people with mixed-reality recreations of deathcamps in their front yards, or bombard sexual assault survivors with violent imagery on their walk to work. Automated, cross-reality illusions, tailor-made by using intimate knowledge of each individuals life and mental states will take disinformation on a whole new level, destroying our ability to trust any source of information. If the rise of QAnon worried you, brace yourself for QAnon in VR.

Originally posted here:

We need to kick Big Tech out of the Metaverse - Wired.co.uk

While Digital India, PLI for electronics have been big focus areas for him, Prasad will be remembered for sending a strong message to FB, WhatsApp and Twitter to follow the rules of the land

Topics Ravi Shankar Prasad|Twitter|big tech

On Wednesday evening, after the President accepted his resignation, the former Electronics and Information Technology minister Ravi Shankar Prasad changed his Twitter bio to "Member of Parliament from Patna Sahib Lok Sabha, Bihar. BJP worker".

Prasad has had a long stintseven yearsin his role as the IT minister for the country, in a government focused heavily on technology and digitalisation. Programmes like Digital India, the Performance-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for electronics manufacturing, Common Service Centres, the Business Process Outsourcing ...

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First Published: Wed, July 07 2021. 19:22 IST

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Ravi Shankar Prasad: The minister who took on big tech over compliance - Business Standard

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When Facebook wanted to turn up the heat on Apple earlier this year in a dispute about ads and data privacy, Facebook brought some ringers to the fight. In a prominent online ad campaign, it featured several small businesses discussing how Apples decision to allow users to turn off data collection would not only eat away at Facebooks trillion-dollar market cap, it would hurt the little guys, too, limiting the effectiveness of Facebooks targeted ads.

The marketing tugged at the heartstrings, highlighting the imperilment of what seemed like ordinary mom-and-pop-type companies. But at least two of the featured small businesses, Morgan Miller Plumbing in Grandview, Missouri, and Enlightened Marketing in Windsor, Colorado, actually have deep connections to Facebook, part of a familiar Big Tech strategy to use relationships with small businesses and pro-small-business lobbyist groups in public-policy PR campaigns, according to new research from the nonpartisan Tech Transparency Project.

They're portraying these as sort of an upswelling of grassroots, small-business support for Big Tech rather than what they really are, which is this very highly cultivated group of mouthpieces, says Katie Paul, the Tech Transparency Projects director.

In the recent example of Facebooks campaign, Morgan Millers founder, Jeff Morgan, says in his official bio on his company website that he has had the privilege of visiting Facebook headquarters to share ideas. Meanwhile, Enlightened Marketing founder Jeremy Howie belongs to Facebooks Small Business Council, an advisory group set up by the social network to help it better understand its small business customers. Moreover, Howie, on his companys website, says hes also visited Facebook HQ several times, met with Facebook Chief Operating OfficerSheryl Sandberg and has taken part in several internal Facebook beta tests.

Moreover, the researchers point out, both Morgan Millers CEO, Stella Crewse, and Enlightened Marketings founder, Howie, sit on the board of the Connected Commerce Council. The pro-small-business lobbying group, known as 3C, counts Amazon, Google and Square as official partners; Facebook was also one until recently, a 3C spokesman says. (3C appreciates the investment of our partner companies in our education programs and general support of 3C member companies, the lobbying groups website reads.)

To be clear, theres nothing illegal about creating ad campaigns that could strike some viewers as less than wholly authentic. Facebook makes no apologies for working directly with some of the 200 million businesses on our platform to showcase how they are able to reach new customers and create jobs in their communities, a Facebook spokesperson says. We are public about our efforts, including creating opportunities for small businesses to give feedback and advice to us and to each other. We will continue to offer free services and affordable advertising that used to only be available to the biggest advertisers.

But it is illustrative of the tightly coordinated inner workings of Big Techs fights in these public policy battles. Back when the antitrust movement against Big Tech started up in 2019, 3C produced pro-Big Tech marketing aimed to sway Congress that featured Myles Hagan, the owner of Geoffs Farmhouse Tables in Travelers Rest, South Carolina, and several other small businesses, according to an earlier Tech Transparency Project report. Without companies like Facebook, Google and Amazon, I would not have been able to find a customer base beyond the borders of my beloved Palmetto state, Myles Hagan said in one press release. Small businesses like mine tend to get hurt when Congress goes after the big guys. And sometimes these small businesses even get recycled: While Morgan Miller appeared most recently in a Facebook campaign, it also appeared in a 2020 and a 2021 Google marketing campaign heralding the benefit of its tools for small businesses.

3C was founded in 2018 by Jake Ward, a former public relations executive and, briefly, a press secretary for Sen. Olympia Snowe, a Maine Republican. In the past, 3C has submitted comments from small businesses to the FTC that supported digital tools from Big Tech like digital payments and videoconferencing; flown other small businesses into Washington to meet with regulators and legislative staff; and assembled press statements like this one, in which it argued against the governments new antitrust cases against Big Tech and included quotes from small businesses praising those large companies.

3C, which wouldnt comment for this story, isnt the only firm devoted to helping Big Tech defend itself in this manner. Another active lobbying group identified by the Tech Transparency Project is the Small Business Roundtable, a Washington, D.C.-based organization founded by two Democratic political operatives, Rhett Buttle and John Stanford. Last May, the Small Business Roundtable and Facebook partnered on a report, State of Small Business. The document cited findings drawn from a survey of 68,000 small businesses already active on Facebook. Given this background, their main conclusion isnt too surprising, that digital tools had been crucial in shoring up their failing companies. Sandberg publicly promoted the report in a press release and through op-eds, and the company also used it in paid advertising campaigns online.

Big Tech has got this group of small businesses that they can tap, and theyre pre-vetted: They know theyre going to be on message, says Paul, the Tech Transparency Project director. Its just very easy for them to keep going back to that well because these guys are part of the team.

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How Facebook And Big Tech Wage Publicity Wars Through Close Ties With Small Businesses - Forbes

The supply chain industry has accepted its technological revolution.

Investors have flooded supply chain tech startups with billions in capital $7.7 billion in Q1 alone, a 355% increase year-over-year to address the inefficiency that has historically plagued the industry.

These same startups have seen increasing valuations around 100% year-over-year for late-stage startups, as questions on supply chain resiliency flood earnings calls, while government administrations call on specialized task forces to address supply chain disruptions.

All of this attention is attracting Big Tech executives to the industry, filling roles in product development and capital deployment to consult the innovators behind this technological insurgence.

Many of these leaders gravitate toward the opportunity to be a part of the supply chains own version of the 1990s Information Revolution and the industrys startup founders are welcoming these assets with open arms.

Inefficiencies allow value creation

The fragmentation of the supply chain industry is one of the leading factors attracting Big Tech executives to one of the last industries yet to embrace the technology needed to eliminate its inefficiencies.

Mark Hoyt, former chief financial officer of Groupons Europe, Middle East and Africa finance function, spoke with FreightWaves about his transition last month to Loadsmart, a digital freight brokerage, as the companys new CFO.

Im [working] on the floor with everybody else and Im able to hear whats actually happening with our shippers and carriers, he said. My eyes have been opened to how much commerce takes place in the US and how important logistics is to the entire underpinning of the US economy. There are opportunities for us to step in and help make this overall process more efficient.

With Loadsmarts $90 million Series C raise from late 2020, Hoyt will be able to take his experience at the two-sided marketplace Groupon (NASDAQ:GRPN) and apply it to the same business model Loadsmart is building for its customers.

With our healthy balance sheet and the cash infusion we raised in November, we are putting capital to work, he said. We are starting to add new solutions to our platform and looking to leverage other outside technologies that would take us 18 to 24 months to build. When we combine all of that within our platform, you can create this multiplier effect where we can generate more value for our customers.

Convoys recent Big Tech recruits have found the same attraction to the inefficient industry. Mark Okerstrom, the president and COO and acting CFO of Convoy described to FreightWaves the challenges of the industry that mirrored the problems he helped solve during his tenure at Expedia Group (NASDAQ:EXPE) and Vrbo.

Its similar to what we did with Vrbo at Expedia, he said. Small hotels were unable to compete with a lot of the big hotels because they didnt have the big marketing budgets and other assets that they have.

We democratized all of that. We found the same on the carrier side, small owner-operators dont have big marketing budgets. They dont have big sales teams to go and sign up freight from around the country, so they sign up with Convoy and we give them full access to that.

Solving these inefficiencies in a groundbreaking way is something that fuels these innovators.

Coming to Convoy is bringing me back to my roots, said Dorothy Li, past vice president of Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) and newly appointed CTO of Convoy.

What Convoy is doing is really democratizing the set of services for smaller companies. What I have been doing at Amazon Web Services is really making data and analytics very accessible to even nontechnical people. Its a combination of building a user interface thats friendly, but also building platforms that allow other people to build on top of our services as well.

Revolution of the human experience

Li wasnt just attracted to innovating an industry desperately needing innovation. What brought her real joy was being a part of a revolution that affects the lives and habits of people around the world.

Convoy has this bold and big mission of transporting the worlds goods with a network of endless capacity and zero waste, she said. I think about this mission and I think about the fact that if we fulfill this mission, the world is better off and not many opportunities have that. The bigger the company is, the better it is for the planet.

Christian Lee shared similar thoughts after joining the team at Transfix, a transportation solutions provider.

I think what we are doing at Transfix goes much deeper than providing transportation services in the sense that the fundamental premise of the business model is less waste, the former CFO of WeWork told FreightWaves. Its a massive win for everyone involved.

That is the very definition of the business were building is one that reduces waste in every aspect of the transportation ecosystem. That gets me really excited because I think theres a way to tell that story and investment in that just continues to have benefits for literally every part of society.

Supply chain needs them

As lucky as the industry is to be going through an attractive technology revolution, industry leaders need these individuals to help strategize the development, deployment, and ultimately, the recruitment of individuals to build these solutions.

Ben Eachus, co-founder and CEO of the warehousing and fulfillment platform Flowspace, explained to FreightWaves the importance of bringing on the companys new chief product officer, Sam Daoud.

We want to build one of the biggest fulfillment networks in the country and to do that you need people who have both seen what that looks like and have done it themselves, he said. Sams experience building a successful e-commerce business from the ground in the Middle East and at Amazon is the reason we felt strongly about bringing Sam on to the team.

He explained that the experience building teams to create this innovation is a big piece of the equation as well.

We are trying to solve a really big problem in fulfillment and in order to do that you want the best, Eachus said. I think people get excited about being around people with a track record of success. That in turn has helped us recruit even more people with track records to solve these problems.

Dan Lewis, the founder and CEO of Convoy, described the similar reasoning behind recruiting Li to build innovative teams to build tools for problems that have been deeply rooted in transportation for decades.

Amazon Prime and the Kindle were groundbreaking and they set the stage for many other companies to try to build similar tools, he said. I think a big part of her experience is thinking about these problems that are uncharted and figuring out how to get people whove been doing it the same way to do them differently.

Whats the value of FreightTech patents? For Omnitracs, maybe nothing.

Carriers bet on Capacity-as-a-Service

More long-haul drivers eyeing final mile

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Big Tech executives find new frontier in FreightTech - FreightWaves

My inbox is full of one question this week: How can I drop Big Tech companies? This got me thinking Is it possible to stop using the services of the Big Five altogether? Thats Amazon, Apple, Google, Facebook and Microsoft. I did the research to give you a headstart if youre looking to move away from one or all of them. If this helps you out, do me a favor and share it with your friends and family.

The recent ban of Parler from Apple and Googles app stores and the Amazon shutdown of the social media app might have you thinking about Big Techs power. Add to this news that the messaging service WhatsApp, owned by Facebook, is grabbing more of your personal data.

Tap or click to be shocked by how much of your data WhatsApp is sending to Facebook. Millions of users have now flocked to alternative messaging platforms like Signal and Telegram.

There are options to replace some of the most used apps and services. Tap or click here for Google alternatives for search, email, messaging and more.

You dont have to use an Apple or Android phone. You dont even have to use Windows on your computer. Spoiler alert: You might not like the options.

Privacy, security, the latest trends and the info you need to live your best digital life.

Smartphones are arguably the most used pieces of consumer technology today. There are more mobile devices on Earth than there are people, so that should give you an idea of how prevalent they are.

What if youre ready to ditch Apple and Google-owned Android? The Light Phoneand Blackphoneare two mobile devices focused on privacy.

The Light Phone, created by Joe Hollier and Kaiwei Tang, is a no-frills experience. Without skimping on an aesthetically pleasing design and commonly used features, the Light Phone is crafted to be used as little as possible.

RELATED:5 apps you should delete off your smartphone right now

Blackphone, on the other hand, is one of the most secure mobile phones on the market. Created by Silent Circle in 2014, the encrypted device runs on its own operating system. All communications are fully encrypted for phone and text services, and it anonymizes web searches and traffic.

You can go the Linux route, too. Fairphone, OnePlus, Gigaset and Nokia have good options available.

The fact that Google has become a verb is a testament to the reach of the worlds most used search engine. Some alternatives value your privacy and still lead you where you want to go online.

One of the most popular search engines for the security-aware crowd is DuckDuckGo. The engine steers clear of personalized results and cant use personal information like your search history or location to alter the outcomes.

LIKE WHAT YOURE READING:Get my tips delivered to your inbox.

StartPage is another search engine thats focused on privacy. The Dutch company shows Google search results but doesnt store your personal information or search data. StartPage is like a privacy filter between you and Google.

Avoiding Amazon might be more stringent than you think. While not shopping on the Amazon website is the obvious first move, plenty of other online sites use Amazon Web Services (AWS) to host their operations.

Websites like Spotify, Airbnb, Etsy and Pinterest use AWS as their cloud hosting service.

An alternative to Amazon is shopping at big box stores like Target or Walmart. With a Walmart+ membership, you get unlimited free delivery and fuel discounts for $98 a year. Tap or click here to see what Walmarts membership has to offer.

This might be the perfect time to support your local shops and grocery stores.

With so many websites and services implementing signing in through Facebook, this is a tricky connection to sever. This first major task is getting your data off Facebook. Tap or click here for how to quickly transfer your photos and videos off of Facebook.

Then, go ahead and hit that delete button. Where should you go instead?

You can start with the social media platform I created. The Komando Community is an ad-free alternative for people interested in tech and making the most of their digital lives. Tap or click here to try it free for 30 days.

Windows and Mac computers arent the only game in town. The Linux operating system has been available since 1991 and is more widely used than you would think.

RELATED:This operating system may be more powerful, secure than Windows and Apple

What sets Linux apart is its open-source software. Since its initial development and release, the Linux community has been building onto the code.

It can be daunting at first to get Linux running on your machine. But unlike Windows, almost every element is customizable through different free and open-source software packages.

The Deepin version is straightforward to install and operate. Find out how to do that here.

You can also use Ubuntu.

While it is possible to get away from Big Tech companies, or at least minimize your dependence on them, its going to be a struggle.

From social media to online shopping, the largest technology companies are firmly ingrained into the fabric of the internet. There certainly are alternatives, but what you gain in privacy, youll probably lose in functionality.

You might want to get some hair growth serum before you pull all yours out trying to get your new Big Tech-less life together.

PC slow, printer wont print or having Wi-Fi issues?Post your tech questions for concrete answers from me and other tech pros.Visit my Q&A Forum and get tech help now.

What digital lifestyle questions do you have? Call Kims national radio show and tap or click here to find it on your local radio station. You can listen to or watch The Kim Komando Showon your phone, tablet, television or computer. Or tap or click here for Kims free podcasts.

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Want to get away from Big Tech? Heres how

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos demonstrates the Kindle Paperwhite during Amazons Kindle Fire event in Santa Monica, Calif., September 6, 2012. (Gus Ruelas/Reuters)In adopting the progressive social agenda, Big Tech has embraced a natural antagonist.

Senator Marco Rubio is sending a warning to Amazon, and the company would be foolish to ignore it. In the pages of USA Today, Senator Rubio sided with Amazon workers attempting to unionize in Bessemer, Ala. When the conflict is between working Americans, wrote the senator from Florida, and a company whose leadership has decided to wage culture war against working-class values, the choice is easy I support the workers. It may seem a small thing for a single senator to take a moral stand (that makes no promises of action) concerning a relatively minor dispute, but Rubios op-ed is deceptively revealing. It is just the latest example of a fundamental shift in the Republican Partys attitude toward big business, away from the laissez-faire attitude conservatives have usually held and toward open hostility for woke capitals most notorious propagators. And Big Tech businesses, Amazon being one of the worst offenders as of late, have no one to blame but themselves.

While the GOP increasingly flirts with anti-corporatism, the executives at Amazon do not seem terribly disturbed. Their focus remains pandering to their natural enemies, even as they alienate their natural allies. Amazons repeated public prostrations to the Left have been less than effective at reducing political pressure on the company. March 25 saw Democrats and Republicans in the House interrogating the CEOs of Twitter, Facebook, and Alphabet. Along with other Big Tech stocks, Amazon underperformed the market broadly on the day of the hearing. While neither current Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos nor incoming CEO Andy Jassy were present at the hearing, they should still be worried: Despite all the left-wing pandering and censorship peddled by Big Tech, they have found no friends in the Democratic Party. Many of the Democrats participating in the interrogation evinced a belief that Big Tech is still, despite the last four years, insufficiently censorious. Each new demonstration of loyalty to the Left by Amazon is met with fury by conservatives, but no equivalent jubilation on the other side. Has there been an outcry of thanks from progressives for their public service in banning transphobic books?

Not in the least. Instead, Amazons accommodations have been rewarded with a growing bipartisan abhorrence for mega-cap tech companies. The Left opposes Amazon because it is a hugely successful multinational corporation led by a fantastically wealthy man, and they will continue to do so as long as they oppose corporate power and the rich in other words, as long as the Left is the Left. But now the Right is growing to oppose Amazon because it is openly hostile to the cultural values held by everyone not on the left.

When Amazon removed Ryan T. Andersons book When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Movement from its catalogue, it alienated conservatives. When it removed a documentary about Clarence Thomas from its catalogue, it alienated conservatives. When it removed the Alliance Defending Freedom and the Family Research Council from its Smile charity program, it alienated conservatives. And yet the Democratic Party has not softened its rhetoric in the least. One need only look at Thursdays congressional hearing for proof.

Have we made the point, Bezos and Jassy? They will never accept you. The mob cannot be bought off. In the eyes of the radicals, no number of banned books or censored conservatives will atone Amazon of its original sin: being a corporation. The Left is no more fond of Amazon than it was when Ryan Anderson could still sell books on the platform. But all these tech giants have, or had, a natural defender in conservatism, a movement that has historically been oriented toward defending businesses (even the mega-caps) from the interventions of the state. Now they are losing their support, and there is little reason to believe that the next Republican president or Republican-controlled Congress will respond to years of censorship by doubling down on free markets. From Senators Marco Rubio and Josh Hawley to President Trump to Tucker Carlson, conservatives are increasingly showing an enthusiasm, if mostly in rhetoric, to forgo their partys historical inclinations and use the whips and reins of government to curtail the Lefts intrusion into the boardroom.

While GOP messaging is shifting dramatically on the question of big business, Republicans in national politics will be close to powerless for around four years at a minimum when it comes to corporate policy. Until there is a Republican president and Republican Congress, the internal debates concerning what exactly should be done about woke capital are largely theoretical, and a political solution to the problem will be impossible. But Amazons shareholders do not have to wait for a national election to act, nor do the shareholders of any other company.

The left-wing pandering of corporate America has incensed the Republican Party to the point that many of its most prominent members are advocating retribution against corporations explicitly for their political activism. That is a threat, largely self-imposed, to Amazons bottom line, which means it is a threat to shareholders, a threat which shareholders would be foolish to ignore. A natural point investors should focus on is attempts to promote viewpoint diversity, such as the shareholder resolution proposed by the National Center for Public Policy Research and subsequently shot down by Amazons Board. Insisting on a broader range of political and social ideologies at the company could make a genuine difference in the way Amazon operates.

The conservative conflict with Amazon is not, or should not be, just another partisan squabble it is a fundamental question about the role of tech giants. Are they tools for activists, utilized from time to time to make sure nobody can read books skeptical of administering hormone blockers to children? Or are they publicly traded companies, like any other, responsible first and foremost to their investors? Nobody is trying to make Amazon a conservative corporation, we would just prefer if the stewards of investor capital did not needlessly antagonize customers, investors, and potential regulators. That is not politicization of the boardroom it is the exact opposite.

Ultimately, if Big Tech does not want to be fighting a war on two fronts, they need to stop the censorship. They need to promote ideological diversity at their companies. When conservative shareholders make requests, they should not be thoughtlessly dismissed. It might upset the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Department, and surely some employees will complain on Slack channels, but that is better than the alternative: the consistent, careless alienation of the half of the country that would normally be on their side.

This is not going away by itself. For better or worse, there is a major shift under way in how Republicans think about the tech companies that hold their values in contempt. In addition to the prominent examples mentioned earlier, Florida governor Ron DeSantis (an early lead for the 2024 Republican nomination, according to prediction market PredictIt) introduced legislation in February that would impose fines on tech companies that deplatform candidates for public office. Amazon and other Big Tech companies are appeasing their perennial enemies, the Left, but getting nothing in return except Republican threats.

This situation is untenable. So long as Amazon behaves like a progressive nonprofit, it will be at best be held in serious suspicion by many Republicans. There is no reason to expect that to go away unless Amazon stops antagonizing those who are traditionally insistent on letting businesses operate free of government intervention. Maybe the populist shift within the conservative movement will convince Big Tech to tone down the wokeness. Maybe someone at Amazon will realize that the Left is not the only threat, and that a massive company that seems to lack any conservative perspectives makes for an excellent punching bag for the new GOP. Or maybe the executives wont listen to reason, but then at least we get to say, I told you so.

It is possible that the executives at Amazon and elsewhere are simply activists, promoting woke ideology out of genuine conviction. It is also possible that they are simply assessing risk, operating under the assumption that the Democrats are a greater threat to their independence and success than the Republicans. The former is a problem because that is not why corporations exist, and the latter is a problem because it has unambiguously failed. Whichever explanation is true does not particularly matter. The result is the same. Senator Rubio stated it outright in his op-ed: The days of conservatives being taken for granted by the business community are over.

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Progressive Social Agenda -- Big Tech, You're Running Out ...