Big Tech and the resilience of the demcratic rule of law
image: Ed Hardie on Unsplash
On 26 May, Reijer Passchier, Assistant Professor at Leiden Law School, spoke before the Standing Committee on Digitalisation of the Dutch Senate, during an expert meeting on the resilience of the democratic rule of law in times of digital transformation.
Where technological progress was initially seen as a driver of advancement and economic growth, there is now growing pressure to address its impact on society. Europe has become heavily dependent on Big Tech, making it more difficult for states and governments to ensure that these companies comply with the law. The power of these companies is now so great that they are able to limit or even deny access to digital infrastructure and circumvent states or to play them off against each other. As a result, Big Tech can exert more and more influence on the international legal order. Reijer Passchier argues that we need to curb this dominance and create European alternatives, allowing smaller players in the field to also play a role. It seems that Big Tech companies and their leaders only pursue three goals: profit, growth and power. A healthy living environment, a properly functioning government, useful innovations, security of livelihood for all, and even human dignity are consistently being sacrificed for these goals.
Passchier, who is also Professor of Digitalisation and the Democratic Constitutional State at the Open University, wrote a position paper (in Dutch) to clarify his views during the expert meeting. These views are also presented in his recently published book ‘De Vloek van Big Tech’ (the Curse of Big Tech).
The Standing Committee on Digitalisation is responsible for the written preparation of legislative proposals in the field of standardisation of digitisation. In addition, it aims, among other things, to test (legislative) proposals with a digitisation component for legality, feasibility and enforceability.
Programme of the Expert Meeting (in Dutch)