Big Tech or big technology companies like Meta, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and Apple influence how we access and interact on the internet. They control key sectors such as search, social media, cloud computing, e-commerce and mobile phone production systems. Access to these services is almost as important to our rights and livelihoods as daily utilities such as water and electricity. Our new briefing, ‘Breaking up with Big Tech,’ outlines how this concentration of power affects human rights.
What does this market power dominance look like?
Outside China, these five companies hold significant market share in different digital markets. Google dominates in search, video, web browsing, mobile (operating systems and app distribution), and online advertising. Meta in social media, messaging services and online advertising. Microsoft in cloud and desktop operating systems. Amazon in e-commerce and cloud. Apple in mobile ecosystems (smartphones, operating system and app distribution) and health and fitness tracking. These companies are also consolidating their power through the rapid expansion of generative artificial intelligence (AI) where they are not just AI developers but landlords of the digital infrastructure on which all generative AI and AI developers depend.
How is their dominance built?
As documented in our Surveillance Giants report, Meta and Google’s dominance is linked to its data harvesting capabilities. Through platforms like Facebook and Instagram, Meta influences how we seek and share information, engage in debate, and participate in society. Google has built its market dominance on extensive data collection through its search and online advertising services.
The dominance of both Meta and Google is underpinned by extraction and accumulation of vast amounts of data that allows them to serve us highly personalised content and advertising, through a practice called profiling. Under these models we may not be charged for their services, but we pay with our personal data. This conduct raises serious concerns about privacy, discrimination and manipulation.
More recently, Meta has become a key player in generative AI and Google in cloud services.
Microsoft
Microsoft dominates the desktop operating systems and productivity software market. It recently expanded into artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing, and communication tools (such as Microsoft Teams). Microsoft’s bundling of services creates high switching costs for users, reinforcing dependency on the company’s suite of products.
Amazon
As the world’s largest e-commerce company, Amazon has become the primary gateway for online shopping in over 100 countries. This gives it significant control over independent sellers on the platform, who often feel bound to operate within its ecosystem. Amazon’s status as a marketplace operator, service provider, and direct seller gives it enormous power. Beyond ecommerce, Amazon has also established itself as an early leader in cloud infrastructure with 30% of the market.
Apple
Apple has a wide-ranging ecosystem of mobile hardware and software. Unlike other Big Tech companies that primarily monetize through advertising, Apple’s business model is centered around device sales – such as iPhones, iPads, and MacBooks – combined with tightly integrated software and services. This gives it power over users who already have Apple products. As the sole gateway for app distribution on iOS devices, Apple’s App Store is a key pillar of its market power.
How does this impact our human rights?
Users of Big Tech services are forced to accept practices that directly and negatively affect personal rights. The lack of user ability to fully ‘opt out’ gives these companies the power to dictate the digital engagement rules in a way that can harm human rights. These companies shape access to information for millions of us and even manipulate our opinions at scale. They spend millions lobbying politicians to shape the rules in their favour. They also buy up competition and enforce rules on other companies that make it difficult for competitors to thrive. Leaving us with no real choice – we either use their services or are cut off from most of the internet.
Freedom of opinion and access to information
Google and Meta’s ability to personalize content and target advertising means they play a substantial role in shaping people’s online experience and determine the information they can access. Cases of content takedowns, inconsistent moderation, algorithmic bias and a lack of investment in content moderation in countries of the global majority highlight the dangers of allowing a handful of companies to act as gatekeepers of the digital public sphere. Ultimately these companies have an outsized influence over shaping public opinion even when it comes at the expense of public safety and human rights.
Right to privacy
Google and Meta’s data collection practices are far reaching. Google can read our private emails. Both companies can track our exact location. They collect data about where we live, work, who we live with, what we do for a living and other intimate details of our lives. This kind of data collection is incompatible with the right to privacy and users have little control over how their data is collected and processed.
Human rights campaigner Tanya O’Carroll’s lawsuit against Meta for allegedly breaching UK data protections shows the personal impact of intrusive targeted advertising. While pregnant, but before she had shared the news with her family, she noticed that her Facebook feed was already flooded with baby-related adverts.
Risks to marginalized communities
Big Tech dominance can also have devastating consequences for marginalized communities. Algorithmic recommender systems have been shown to amplify harmful content to maximize engagement and serve us more adverts for profit. Our investigations into Facebook’s role in the Tigray war in Ethiopia between 2020 and 2022 and the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya in Myanmar in 2017 shows how Facebook’s algorithms “supercharged” the spread of harmful rhetoric targeting these communities. The power of social media platforms can be even more worrying in crisis situations like these where users are less likely to have alternative sources of information to counterbalance, contextualise and debunk inflammatory or false rhetoric.
Labour rights abuses
The sheer economic power of Big Tech also means they have the ability to significantly shape global labour markets. And yet these companies have repeatedly been found to have failed to assess how their own purchasing practices could contribute to labour rights harms in their supply chains.
In 2023 Amnesty found that Migrant workers contracted to Amazon warehouses in Saudi Arabia were deceived by recruitment agents about the nature of the employment, cheated of promised pay and benefits, punished if they complained and housed in squalid conditions by third party contractors. This pattern is not unique to Amazon. Across the tech sector, Big Tech firms have leveraged their economic power to minimise costs and liabilities, often at the expense of marginalized workers in the most vulnerable situations.
How can this dominance be addressed for the benefit of people’s human rights?
Governments must rein in Big Tech and put people’s rights first. Addressing Big Tech’s dominance is not only a matter of market fairness but a pressing human rights issue. Governments have obligations under international law to protect, respect and fulfil human rights and must break up Big Tech companies that harm human rights. This can be done by enforcing competition and antitrust laws. While these laws are not a silver bullet for the enforcement of international human rights obligations, they are a critical and underutilized tool in the state’s human rights toolbox.
On 12 August 2025, Amnesty International wrote to Meta, Google, Microsoft, Apple and Amazon regarding the issues raised in this briefing. Meta and Microsoft replied in writing and the full responses can be found in the annex of the briefing.
