Big Tech

Big Tech is the informal name for the handful of dominant technology corporations that control the majority of the digital economy: Google, Meta (Facebook/Instagram/WhatsApp), Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft, with Twitter/X, TikTok, and Netflix sometimes included depending on context. These companies collectively control search, social media, cloud computing, app distribution, e-commerce, and digital advertising at a scale that has no historical precedent in media.

What it means

The power of Big Tech is not just economic — it's infrastructural. Google controls roughly 90% of web search. Apple and Google together control 100% of smartphone app distribution through their duopoly on app stores. Amazon Web Services hosts a substantial fraction of the internet. Facebook reaches nearly half the global population. This concentration means these companies can, in practice, make someone or something disappear from the digital world by removing them from search results, app stores, social platforms, and payment systems simultaneously.

Criticism of Big Tech comes from both left and right — the left focuses on monopoly power and data privacy; the right focuses on viewpoint-based censorship and silencing of conservative and Christian voices.

How it works on Gab

Gab exists explicitly as an alternative to the Big Tech social stack. Andrew Torba has described its mission as building infrastructure the parallel economy can depend on — infrastructure that Big Tech cannot switch off. Gab's own servers, payment systems, and in-house operations are a direct architectural response to the control Big Tech exerts over dependent platforms.

Related terms

The alternative is alt-tech. Big Tech's censorship practices are a form of deplatforming. Their business model is surveillance capitalism. The legal shield that protects their moderation decisions from liability is Section 230.