People vs Big Tech is a movement fighting to overturn the predatory business model of giant tech corporations and change the internet for good.
We’re people and organisations from across Europe and the world dedicated to building a just, equitable online world. Free from the grip of a handful of CEOs.
We are ordinary people, civil society experts, designers, technologists, campaigners, psychologists… taking action and using our collective voice to fight for the public interest.
And we’re making ourselves heard. From winning a ban on the most intrusive kinds of surveillance advertising in Europe to pushing regulators to investigate Meta to standing with whistleblowers at pivotal moments, our members are forging powerful coalitions to make change happen. And we’re laying the ground for a better tech future.
Because we believe in a digital world built for empowerment -- not brainwashing. For connection -- not addiction. We want our children to grow up with tools designed for discovery and self-expression, not exploitation and isolation.
For far too long, the Big Tech corporations have used and abused us to build their vast fortunes. But together we’re fighting back. And we won’t stop until we have the internet everyone, everywhere deserves.
The Problem
Millions of people around the world live in a state of near constant surveillance, where human rights abuses are a daily occurrence.
Predatory, addictive algorithms designed to keep us scrolling stalk our every move. Spreading hate and disinformation, harming our mental health, even changing the way we think and feel.
None of us asked for this, but all of us are affected. By the division and lies that chip at our basic freedoms. By the deliberately addictive tech that saps our time and fractures childhoods. By the toxic news feeds finely optimised to engage and enrage each one of us.
While the Big Tech CEOs get rich using our private moments to build vast advertising empires, we the people are seen as a commodity, ready for exploitation.
But it doesn't have to be this way
There is a solution...
Fix our feeds
Big Tech’s toxic recommender systems and algorithms are amplifying hate speech and disinformation, weaponising every societal fault line to keep us scrolling and the ad money rolling in. This isn't just a glitch in the system, it is the system: an unconscionable, unethical business model designed to engage, enrage and addict. It's time to force these CEOs to make their platforms safe by default, detox their algorithms and give users real control.
Stop Surveillance For Profit
A tiny group of CEOs have created vast advertising empires off of our backs. They spy on our most personal interactions, profile our vulnerabilities, and then creep into our lives to hijack our time, emotions and money. It’s a dystopian version of the internet literally no one asked for. But regulators can end it now, by banning surveillance advertising, requiring transparency on all aspects of online ads and rigorously enforcing our privacy rights.
Break Open Big Tech
Big Tech has grown to dominate every aspect of our lives, including our economies - and they are dictating the direction of powerful new technologies like AI in ways that harm us. We believe technological progress needs to serve people first and foremost, rather than the profits of a handful of global mega corporations. Governments must end the stranglehold of Big Tech through robust antitrust enforcement and economic regulation and investment in technology that serves public goals rather than private profit.
Who are we?
People vs Big Tech is a movement of 122 civil society organisations and concerned citizens working together to challenge the power and abuses of Big Tech.
Discover the 122 organisations who form our movement:
AI Forensics
Alliance4Europe
Campact
Declic
Foxglove
What we have achieved so far
We won an EU-wide ban on the use of sensitive personal data for targeted advertising
Targeted advertising is at the dark heart of big tech’s twisted business model. It means corporations slicing and dicing the most intimate details of our lives to prey on our vulnerabilities, hijack our time and sell us things we don’t need or want.
So when the pundits said we had no hope of getting action on ads into the EU’s new tech law, a powerful movement of organisations, activists, and businesses refused to listen – instead working up watertight policy proposals and launching a massive people’s advocacy push for change.
The resulting ban on using sensitive data like race and religion to target people with ads is a vital first step towards the surveillance-free future we’re determined to build for everyone.
We got the EU to prohibit targeted advertising to kids
Keeping children safe from harm is society’s most basic job. But for years, a handful of tech CEOs have had free rein to spy and experiment on our kids – to sell them stuff, addict them to dangerous products and exploit their developing brains for profit.
Now a mega movement of parents, teachers, psychologists and concerned citizens is rising up to demand a safer, more enriching online world for children. And it’s winning results, like getting MEPs to vote for a ban on insidious spy-advertising to kids in Europe.
We’re just starting to see what the determination and moral clarity of this powerful coalition can achieve. Next stop? An internet that truly meets kids’ needs.
We teamed up with Nobel Laureates to write a 10-point plan to end disinformation
Sometimes people everywhere agree, and what’s needed is a powerful rallying call to connect, unite and galvanise action. So when Nobel prize-winners Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov said they wanted to issue a global call to rein in Big Tech and support journalism, our members leapt into action – teaming up to help develop, draft and promote a compelling manifesto for change.
Launched at the Nobel Peace Center in 2022, the actionable, 10-point plan has since been endorsed by over 294 Nobel laureates, organisations and individuals around the world. It’s a vision for a different future, and the best part is it’s totally doable.
Our members got the EU Commission to investigate Meta
Getting Europe to pass a strong tech law was a major victory for this movement. But the real work is making sure that law is enforced. That’s why the digital detectives at AI Forensics hit the ground running, with a deep-dive investigation revealing how Meta is letting pro-Russia propaganda ads flood the EU, in alleged breach of the Digital Services Act.
The European Commission has since launched formal proceedings against Meta, citing AI Forensics’ research. This is accountability in action!
Civil society groups forced LinkedIn to obey the law
When LinkedIn continued to use sensitive data like sexuality or health information to target people with ads, in potential breach of the EU’s new Digital Services Act, civil society wasn’t just going to just sit back and let them. A coalition of groups, including Global Witness, EDRi, Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte (GFF) and Bits of Freedom, rapidly stepped up, filing a complaint with the European Commission and ultimately forcing LinkedIn to disable this type of invasive ad targeting in the EEA.
With this and a spate of similar complaints in motion, the message to Big Tech is crystal clear: civil society won't let you get away with not complying with the law.
Our members are pushing regulators to tackle gender-biased algorithms
Tech justice and women’s rights campaigners have united in a mighty coalition to tackle the insidious challenge of discriminatory algorithms, and made vital progress pressing authorities in the Netherlands and France to take up the cause.
PvBT member Global Witness, together with Bureau Clara Wichmann in the Netherlands and Fondation des Femmes in France, submitted four complaints to national regulators based on the suspicion that Meta’s algorithms to determine which users see certain job ads discriminate against women and breach equality and data protection laws.
The Dutch Institute of Human Rights has since held a hearing on the complaint while France’s Défenseur des Droits has written “investigation letters” to Meta demanding a response. This is the first time Meta has been questioned on the issue in the EU!
