Bolstered by pandemic, tech titans face growing scrutiny

PARIS: Accelerating the transition to an ever more digital existence, the coronavirus pandemic has tightened tech giants’ grip on billions of customers’ lives.

Governments and users are belatedly coming to terms with the power held by the likes of Apple and Amazon, particularly in focus this year thanks to their role in everything from setting up video meetings to doing our shopping for us.

Most of the planet has spent at least part of 2020 in lockdown, and as Western consumers clicked through Google and Facebook, hundreds of millions of Chinese users turned to Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent or Xiaomi.

These “superstars” of online capitalism “have given the impression, in this world where so many things that seemed solid are now fragile, that they are above it all and even invincible,” said Paris-based economist Joelle Toledano.