It's never been a better time to talk about corporate accountability
Dear Reader,
It might have only been a few months ago that Big Tech, super-sized by the boost of the pandemic, seemed untouchable and soaring to ever-new heights. The fortunes were favoring a cryptoboom and luring new users by the droves with promises of astronomical wealth.
As we come to the end-line of 2022, a less flattering picture is emerging, one in which mass layoffs, dampened earnings, and plunging stock prices have become the face of Silicon Valley. Where the implosion of FTX has deeply ravaged the credibility of a still nascent Web 3.0, and staggering ineptitude and self-destruction is becoming the hallmark of Twitter 2.0.
The boom-and-bust prophecy writes itself here, readers.
The warning signs have always been there. Indeed, for some time now, we’ve been pointing to the many cracks appearing in the buoyant tech narrative. And this tragicomedy, while amusing, is no laughing matter. Yet again, those who will bear the worst externalities of these disasters are not the group of actors who have led us down this road.
A ‘told-you-say’ moment if there was ever one. But there is no room or reason to gloat. If anything, there is a great deal of work to be done! As these crises play out, the need for strong regulatory intervention becomes more urgent than ever. These are the key moments for progressive thought leadership to step up and double down on the push for binding and effective corporate governance.
This month on DataSyn, we bring you two pieces that respond to this imperative, working to shape the discourse in real-time. Our first piece analyzes Northern frameworks for extra territorial responsibility for multi-national corporations, bridging in critical gaps on digitalization and the interests of the developing world. Our second feature, a synthesis piece from a recent IT for Change release, the State of Big Tech, maps Big Tech power and conduits of resistance across the world economy.
The Datasyn Team
THE MULTILATERAL ARENA
A Southern Perspective: The Missing Piece in ERFs
Anita Gurumurthy, Shreeja Sen and Sreyan Chatterjee
Engaging with the recently updated draft of the OECD Guidelines on Multinational Enterprises and the EU supply chain directive, this essay critically examines the proposed frameworks’ silences on increasingly central issues of digitalization and data rights. Capturing the political stakes of these silences, the piece calls for greater involvement of the Global South in evolving these frameworks.
Read on.
THE BIG EXCESS
Dismantling Digital Enclosures: Reflections from the State of Big Tech
Deepti Bharthur, Amay Korjan and Shreeja Sen
Earlier this month, IT for Change released the debut edition of the State of Big Tech Compendium. Looking to chart the terrain of the struggle against Big Tech across sectors and regions, the compendium brings together a slew of critical and expert voices to take stock of where the battle currently stands, and the way forward. In this synthesis, the compendium’s editorial team provide a synoptic account of the breath of perspectives represented within, as well as some of the most salient ideas and analytical points that emerged from the many contributions.
Read on.
The Sins and Synergies Lounge
This month, the cryptosphere saw the rather spectacular implosion of FTX. Read Molly White's three-part explainer series on the rise and fall of the short-lived crypto exchange, where she breaks down the FTX saga and reflects on the bleak future for Web 3.0 finance.
Speaking of crypto, as climate finance, a key theme of COP27, becomes increasingly tied to technological solutions, Web 3.0 purveyors are already positioning themselves as the planet’s saviors, advancing their reach through aggressive and insolent lobbying. Read this account of a crypto venture capital firm and its “blitz” lobbying campaign through carbon credits.
Twitter’s free fall descent into anarchy, driven by Elon Musk’s takeover has dominated internet discourse these past few weeks. In this new episode of Tech Won’t Save Us, Hussein Kesvani summarizes all that went wrong with Musk’s decisions.
As e-commerce fuels the expansion of Black Friday into a global consumer phenomenon, workers used the day to speak up. Read about Make Amazon Pay, the world-wide protest campaign of Amazon warehouse workers launched during Black Friday week, and their demands for equitable pay and improved working conditions.
In November we saw massive layoffs across Big Tech companies, with several of them shedding over 50 % of their workforce. In this piece, Jack Shaw draws parallels between this Silicon Valley meltdown and the Dotcom Bubble Burst of the early 2000s.
Post-script
DataSyn is a free monthly newsletter from IT for Change, featuring content hosted by
Bot Populi. DataSyn is supported through the Fair, Green, and Global Alliance.
Liked what you read? To have such concise and relevant analysis on all things Big Tech delivered to your inbox every month, subscribe to DataSyn!