Is Big Tech Getting Too Big?

WAMU 88.5

Published June 22, 2017 at 10:06 AM EDT

President Donald Trump welcomes members of his American Technology Council, including (L-R) Apple CEO Tim Cook, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos in the State Dining Room of the White House June 19, 2017. Some critics say these big tech companies are getting too big and the government should break them up.

Uber founder Travis Kalanick just resigned as CEO after a controversial run, but he leaves behind a very powerful company — one worth an estimated $70 billion.

Silicon Valley leaders like Kalanick have unprecedented power. Uber, Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google have huge bank accounts and tremendous influence, culturally and politically.

Where does that leave the rest of us, who are dependent on their tech and how it drives the economy? Is it time for people to push back against these multi-billion dollar companies?

GUESTS

Cecilia Kang, Technology reporter, The New York Times

Jonathan Taplin, Director emeritus, University of Southern California’s Annenberg Innovation Lab; author of “Move Fast and Break Things: How Google, Facebook and Amazon Cornered Culture and Undermined Democracy”

Jeffrey Eisenach, Director, Center for Internet, Communications and Technology Policy, American Enterprise Institute (AEI)

Jeffrey Rayport, Senior lecturer, Harvard Business School; private equity investor

For more, visit http://the1a.org.