Big Tech serves rulers’ state power

The ruling class rules over society through the state apparatus. Laws, government, cops and prisons exist to keep the bosses in control of society. Highly successful and powerful U.S. high tech companies Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple and Microsoft (GAFAM) for many years have operated in their own self-interest and at times to the detriment of the interests of the main wing finance capitalists. As the fighting between the Big Fascist and Small Fascist (see glossary p.6) wings of the capitalists has become increasingly volatile the Big Fascists are using their state power to bring the Big Tech firms into line.
In the 20th century, the Defense Department and the intelligence community controlled the cutting-edge technologies: nuclear weapons, advanced fighter jets, spy satellites, and mainframe computers.  Now, the cutting-edge technologies are often developed by GAFAM.  The most advanced weapons are no longer just intercontinental ballistic missiles, but also super-accurate drones that allow a small state like Iran to attack the world’s most vital oil facility in Saudi Arabia. Besides developing technologies for use in weapons, GAFAM has become the biggest collector of information in the world (securelist.com, 10/23/19)
Rulers incorporate GAFAM into the state apparatus
The main way GAFAM collects information is that people volunteer it; posting pictures, turning on GPS, broadcasting their location every time they pay with a credit card.  Commercial firms collect and store that private information.  When journalist/engineer Surya Mattu did a check on the 80,000 most popular websites, 74 percent loaded Google trackers, 33 percent Facebook trackers, and 15 percent loaded “session recorders” – the digital equivalent of recording videos of what you are surfing.  Even with all trackers turned off, your phone and computer still report a unique ID number that allows Big Tech to track that number back to you.
The bosses’ state has struggled to match what Big Tech can do. After 9/11, the National Security Agency (NSA) started a program to monitor hundreds of millions of phone calls in order to identify terrorists by detecting key words, but in 201, the NSA ostensibly abandoned it, admitting it had detected no terror attacks.  Around that same time, Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter, and YouTube (Google) set up the “Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism” (GIFCT) to share information about potential terrorist sympathizers and radicals (GIFCT.org). Instead of competing with Big Tech the ruling class is incorporating them into the state.
The nonprofit Upturn found at least 2,000 police agencies had searched hundreds of thousands locked, encrypted phones in recent years.  In August 2019, the FBI admitted to searching the phone records of 16,000 people even though only 7 of them had ties to an investigation.  But those numbers pale compared to the hundreds of millions of phones/computers that GAFAM monitors 24/7.  New devices either ask you to hook up to the cloud or do it automatically without telling you. Facial recognition is spreading and there are many millions of cameras on street corners, in stores and on front doors, and private drones are showing up at any newsworthy event to drive up social media rankings.
This is why the ruling class increasingly turns to Big Tech. The pro-Biden forces used GAFAM to silence Trump, closing his Twitter account and his Facebook page. After the January 6 attack on the Capitol, they shut down racist far-right social media platforms like Parler.
Big Fascists Move to Control GAFAM
All of the GAFAM firms are about 60 percent owned by the same finance capitalist institutions, not mainly individuals. The two most prominent Apple execs (Tim Cook and Arthur Levinson) own 0.12 percent of Apple stock.  The biggest shareholders are Vanguard (7.8 percent), BlackRock (6.6 percent), Berkshire Hathaway (5.6 percent), State Street (4.0 percent) and FMR (2.1 percent).  
Microsoft’s Bill Gates appears to control 4.3 percent of its stock (through his fronts), while Vanguard owns 8.4 percent, BlackRock 6.8 percent, State Street 4.2 percent, FMR 3.0 percent, and T. Rowe Price 2.4 percent.  
At Amazon, Jeff Bezos owns 11 percent, Advisor Group 7.1 percent, Vanguard 6.6 percent, BlackRock 5.4 percent, State Street 3.2 percent, and T. Rowe Price 3.2 percent.  
At Google’s parent Alphabet, the two big shots – Larry Page and Serge Brin – each own 2.8 percent, compared to Vanguard 4.5 percent, BlackRock 3.7 percent, T. Rowe Price 1.8 percent, State Street 1.4 percent, and FMR 1.4 percent.  
Facebook is something of an exception because Mark Zuckerberg controls 58 percent of the votes (which is why Facebook is sometimes more independent of the other GAFAM firms), but he owns 16.2 percent of the stock compared to Vanguard 7.5 percent, BlackRock 6. percent, FMR 5.1 percent, and T. Rowe Price 4.3 percent.  
Technology under capitalism becomes another tool for the bosses to oppress our class. Only after the workers take power with communist revolution and destroy both the capitalist state and the Big Tech bosses will technology serve the needs of the masses instead of the profits of the racist billionaires.