Tech Watchdog Challenges Big Tech's Small Business Shield

The Disconnect Between Big Tech's Narrative and Small Business Reality

Frequently, the most influential technology corporations promote the idea that any challenge to their substantial market position will negatively impact the smaller businesses that depend on their offerings.

However, contrary to the positive portrayals often presented by Big Tech, many business owners find themselves struggling with a heavy reliance on large, often non-transparent corporations.

Accountable Tech's "Main Street Against Big Tech" Campaign

The tech advocacy group Accountable Tech is launching a new awareness initiative, “Main Street Against Big Tech,” to highlight these difficulties.

This six-figure campaign will include a full-page advertisement in The Mercury News, digital advertisements on various social media platforms, and a continuing video series.

The series will feature accounts from small business owners that challenge the public relations messaging from major technology companies.

Support for the project comes from organizations including the Main Street Alliance, Small Business Rising, the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, and the American Economic Liberties Project.

Misleading Data and Algorithm Changes: Accountable Tech co-founder Jesse Lehrich explained to TechCrunch that the campaign emphasizes the numerous harms small business owners face, including inaccurate data, hidden fees, and abrupt alterations to rules or algorithms.

These changes can severely damage a company with limited access to support services.

Questioning Big Tech's Pro-Small Business Stance

Lehrich characterizes Facebook’s long-running public relations efforts regarding support for small businesses as “incredibly cynical and opportunistic.”

Some Facebook employees reportedly share this viewpoint.

The experience of operating a business on major tech platforms isn’t consistently positive for small business owners, who are vulnerable to the decisions of immensely powerful corporations with whom they have a fragile connection.

“They are completely at the mercy of these giants, with little access to legitimate metrics or customer service,” Lehrich stated.

“It’s not a partnership, it’s exploitation.”

Shifting Public Perception

Public opinion appears to be evolving, with a growing recognition that even seemingly free technology platforms come at a cost.

This cost can manifest as compromises in privacy or the constant flow of user-generated content used for advertising purposes.

While small businesses may currently utilize tools from dominant tech companies, it doesn’t preclude the possibility of a new competitor emerging with a superior or equally effective solution.

Anticompetitive Practices: Lehrich explained to TechCrunch that monopolies and oligopolies function by ensuring that these Big Tech corporations and their services are perceived as “essential” only because of ongoing anticompetitive behavior.

This behavior effectively eliminates competition.

The Role of Regulation and Legislative Action

As Congress considers updates to laws originally designed for a pre-internet era, the largest technology companies will likely continue to leverage their market dominance.

This will leave both businesses and users with limited alternatives.

“In an effort to avoid regulatory scrutiny, monopolists like Facebook, Google and Amazon have spent millions of dollars persuading lawmakers and the public that their business products are a lifeline for small businesses when in fact the opposite is true,” said Accountable Tech co-founder and Executive Director Nicole Gill.

“… But now small business owners are fighting back by sharing their lived experience to expose the real relationship between Big Tech and Main Street.”