UK Launches Watchdog To Govern Big Tech

We are all aware that the power and reach of Big Tech has grown faster than governments’ ability to regulate them. With the British Government’s plans to expand and champion the UK’s appeal to new tech start-ups and create a world-leading science and technology innovation hub, this is something that had to be addressed and the government wanted to be seen taking the initiative.

Last November the British Government stated:

“Tech giants will be subject to a new regime to give consumers more choice and control over their data, help small businesses thrive, and ensure news outlets are not forced out by their bigger rivals.

“Online platforms bring huge benefits for businesses and society, but there is growing consensus in the UK and abroad that the concentration of power amongst in Big Tech is curtailing growth in the tech sector, reducing innovation and potentially having negative impacts on the people and businesses that rely on them.” 

This week, as promised during that November announcement, the British Government has introduced a new Big Tech watchdog tasked with keeping companies like Facebook and Google in check. 

As part of the country's competition regulator – The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), the new Digital Markets Unit (DMU) has been set up to stop big tech companies from abusing their market dominance after the competition regulator said existing rules were not enough, and to coordinate with international partners that are also grappling with tech regulation.

“This will pave the way for the development of new digital services and lower prices,

give consumers more choice and control over their data, and support our news industry,

which is vital to freedom of expression and our democratic values.” 

– Oliver Dowden, Britain’s Digital Secretary

Mr Dowden said the initial remit will be to see if a code of conduct could be applied in practice to address the imbalance of power and help govern the relationships between platforms and content providers, such as news publishers, to ensure they were as fair and reasonable as possible – Partly in response to both Facebook and Google being locked in a long-running feud with news and media outlets over fair compensation for their articles that appear on users' feeds and in search results.

For now, the new watchdog will be running at “low power” mode ahead of the implementation of legislation that will bestow it with its full powers. This means that, for the moment, the DMU won’t be able to carry out some of the sweeping actions that were originally suggested, but the government has committed to passing the legislation as "soon as Parliamentary time allows."

Once it is running at full power, the DMU could eventually have the ability to block activities of Big Tech companies that it deems to be harmful to the wider industry and fine those that don't comply. The intended outcome of giving people the option to decide whether they can be subjected to personalized advertising, ensuring consumers are not inhibited from switching to or using rival platforms, and providing consumers with more control over their data in a simpler and more practical way than the overly complicated European GDPR laws – which in reality have only added the bureaucratic headache companies face without comprehensively protecting individual’s privacy rights.

The question will be, can this be done without another bureaucratic mess and implemented effectively to truly address the concentration of power in Big Tech without reducing innovation and potentially having negative impacts on the people and smaller businesses they are trying to help.

What are your thoughts on this new watchdog, its implementation, and what insights do you have in its future impact on your business? Will it be a help or a hindrance?