Break up Big Tech
To the European Commission
Petition
We call on the European Commission to break up Google’s monopoly over digital advertising, and take broader action to dismantle the unchecked power of Big Tech monopolies across Europe’s digital economy. This includes robust enforcement of competition law to force dominant tech companies to sell off parts of their businesses where needed to restore fair competition, protect consumers, and defend our democracy.
Why is this important?
Every time you open a news site, Google gets paid. These days most of us consume our information and news online. But every time you search, Google decides what you see.
Google’s monopoly over digital advertising has bankrupted independent journalism. By dominating the ad market, it sucks up the money that used to fund independent media, leaving newsrooms struggling or shutting down. [1]
But it’s not just the media that suffers, it’s all of us. When independent journalism dies, so does our right to know the truth. And without the truth, democracy plunges into the dark.
But for the first time in decades, we have a real shot to break the stranglehold. A US judge just confirmed that Google has an illegal advertising monopoly. [2]
At the same time, the European Commission is about to finish its own investigation into Google’s ad tech monopoly any day now. [3]
This is a once-in-a-generation moment to disrupt Big Tech’s power, by breaking up Google and others like Meta and Apple into separate companies. Tell the EU Commission they have a mandate from people across Europe to break up Big Tech monopolies!
References:
https://www.euractiv.com/section/politics/news/eu-newspapers-record-worst-ever-drop-in-ad-revenue/
Because of Google, newspapers across Europe have experienced historic drops in ad revenue, with some regions seeing declines of up to 50 percent, putting immense pressure on newsrooms, threatening their sustainability and leading to closures and cutbacks
[3] https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_23_3207
In 2023, it found that breaking up Google by forcing the company to sell off parts of its advertising business was the only way of restoring competition.