Does Silicon Valley Have Too Much Power? Americans Growing Skeptical About Influence Of Big Tech Companies, Report Says

A new Knight Foundation and Gallup report reveals that Americans are growing increasingly skeptical of the power and influence of big tech companies such as Facebook and Google. The report, titled “Techlash? America’s Growing Concern With Major Tech Companies,” reveals that 77% of Americans believe big tech firms such as Facebook, Google, Amazon and Apple have too much power.

The report also shows that 60% of Americans believe that tech companies do more to divide society than to unite it, while 74% say they are concerned about the growing spread of misinformation on the internet.

Several U.S. intelligence agencies have claimed that Russia spread disinformation on social networks such as Facebook and Twitter in order to interfere in the 2016 election. This “fake news” was often in favor of then-presidential candidate Donald Trump.

Attorney General William Barr has suggested that big tech companies should be held more legally accountable for what is posted on social media platforms. Trump has claimed without evidence that the Google search engine is biased against conservatives and that it steered “millions” of votes towards his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in 2016.

Big tech companies are also currently facing multiple antitrust investigations from the federal government. Apple's App Store, for example, is reportedly being investigated for favoring first-party apps over other developers, while several U.S. senators want an investigation into Google’s digital advertising practices.

Americans are divided on whether the U.S. government should intervene and break up big tech firms, with 50% approving of government intervention and 49% disapproving. Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has advocated for the federal government to break up big tech companies.