Who can curb the power of the tech billionaires?
In the media image: BoliviaInteligente on Unsplash
The immense wealth and technological influence of Elon Musk and other tech leaders mean that they have ‘so much power they can almost behave like a state unto themselves,’ claims Reijer Passchier in ‘Business Wise’.
Through companies such as X, SpaceX and Starlink, Musk controls technologies that can make entire countries dependent on him. Unlike a government, he is not elected and is not accountable to a parliament for the decisions he makes. According to Passchier, Professor of Digitalisation and the Democratic Constitutional State at the Open University and Assistant Professor in Constitutional and Administrative Law in Leiden, a change of political course is therefore urgently needed. It is time we stopped ‘worshipping technology and tech leaders such as Musk.’
‘It is nonsense to think that they alone know where the world should be heading,’ Passchier continues. According to him, Europe should not only enforce existing regulations more effectively, but also invest in its own digital infrastructure and in alternatives to US tech companies. He argues that if companies such as X fail to comply with European rules, excluding them from the European market should remain an option.