Amnesty International on Thursday called on governments to rein in the power of major technology companies, warning that their unchecked dominance poses serious threats to human rights.
In a new briefing titled “Breaking up with Big Tech,” the rights group said Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft, Amazon and Apple exert “extraordinary influence” over online life, controlling sectors from search engines and social media to app stores and cloud computing.
“These few companies act as digital landlords who determine the shape and form of our online interaction,” said Hannah Storey, Amnesty’s advocacy and policy adviser on technology and human rights. “Addressing this dominance is critical, not only as a matter of market fairness but as a pressing human rights issue.”
The briefing argues that the concentration of power among these firms undermines privacy, freedom of expression and access to information. Amnesty pointed to past cases in which Facebook’s role in the Tigray war in Ethiopia and in the ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar demonstrated the real-world consequences of digital monopolies.
Amnesty said Big Tech’s influence is deepening as companies expand into artificial intelligence, further consolidating control over online infrastructure and public discourse. It cited documented cases of content removal, inconsistent moderation and algorithmic bias as evidence of the risks posed by their dominance.
Under international human rights law, states are obligated to regulate corporate power, Amnesty noted. It urged governments to treat competition law as a “human rights toolbox,” using it to investigate and sanction anti-competitive practices, prevent monopolies and block harmful mergers.
Among its recommendations, the group said states should investigate Big Tech for human rights harms, consider breaking up companies found to abuse their dominance, and scrutinise the fast-growing generative AI sector for risks linked to anti-competitive behaviour.
Amnesty wrote to Meta, Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Apple on Aug. 12 with a summary of its findings. Meta and Microsoft responded in writing, while Google, Amazon and Apple had not replied by the time of publication, the group said.
“This is the first time Amnesty International has published a briefing of this nature,” Storey said. “Breaking up these tech oligarchies will help create an online environment that is fair and just.”
