It’s time to level the playing field.
We need to rein in Big Tech’s abuses of power to give small business owners the chance to compete, innovate, and succeed.
For too long, Big Tech companies like Facebook, Google, and Amazon have used small business owners as a shield to stave off calls for reform and accountability. That ends now.
Big Tech companies abuse their power to exploit small businesses.
Lack of Choice
Big Tech companies abuse their near-total control over online marketplaces to squeeze small business owners, who have no choice but to accept their unfair terms of service, or lose access to massive swaths of the digital economy.
Misleading Terms
Small business owners forced to use Big Tech’s tools are often fed metrics that carry little meaning. Keeping up with Big Tech’s terms and conditions is a job in itself for small business owners already struggling to compete.
Opaque Metrics
Big Tech platforms force small business owners to rely not only on their products and services to reach people online, but also their analytics tools to determine return on investment, needlessly depriving small business owners of access to data about their own customer base and the success of their campaigns.
Unexpected Changes
Minor changes by Big Tech platforms can pull the rug out from under small business owners at the turn of a dial. It takes many small business owners years to figure out how to game Facebook or Google’s black-box algorithm to present their company in a favorable way, but even minor tweaks to the algorithm can undo years of work.
Lack of Customer Support
While Big Tech is quick to hold up small business owners as their prized constituents when trying to convince lawmakers and the public of their benevolence and eschew regulation, small business owners consistently struggle to access basic customer support as larger business partners.
A Moral Dilemma
Big Tech’s societal harms and monopoly power present a moral dilemma for many small business owners. On one hand, it’s nearly impossible to avoid using Big Tech’s tools to remain competitive; but on the other, small business owners are reluctant to give money to Big Tech platforms that sow hate and division, profit off of dangerous disinformation, facilitate discrimination, and erode our information ecosystem.
Main Street Against Big Tech is elevating the experiences of small business owners:
“I started to run Facebook ads. When the people come [to my store] I always ask, ‘how do you know about us?’ Very little I hear, ‘oh I saw this on Facebook.’ I don’t know if my ad is making a difference. There’s no transparency. We can’t talk to anyone in the company. It’s faceless.”
Guadalupe Ramirez
Owner of AlterNatives Boutique
Member of the Main Street Alliance
Richmond, VA
“When I heard that Facebook had been going around saying that they’ve made a significant difference in the lives of small business and that nobody should regulate them, I find that appalling and disgusting.”
Anita Thomas
Exec. Director of Carolyn Dorfman Dance
Member of the Main Street Alliance
Union, NJ
“We have no choice. We have to play in the Google world. We have to spend a lot of resources to understand what it means to be search engine optimized in Google search. Big Tech companies like Google can change the rules without any transparency.”
Sabrina Parsons
CEO of Palo Alto Software
Member of the Main Street Alliance
Eugene, OR
“I recognize after 50 years that competition is necessary to make the business the best it can be. But competing against Amazon is patently unfair...If only monopolies exist, then you’re only only to get the best the monopoly can be. The consumer loses choice.”
David Guernsey
CEO of Guernsey Office Products
Member of Small Business Rising
Sterling, VA
“Over the last eight years, 99 percent of every new digital dollar has gone to Facebook or Google…We are competing in a world where they make the rules. If we continue to go down the road that we are going down, we’re going to end up in a very dark world and it’s going to be one where there isn’t local journalism.”
Doug Reynolds
Owner of The Charleston Gazette-Mail
Member of the Main Street Alliance
Charleston, WV
“I don’t think Amazon is ever looking out for anyone other than Amazon. Amazon allows copycat duplication of products. There’s no competition when an Amazon-made duplicate product can put someone out of business. It’s very predatory.”
Gina Schaefer
CEO of 13 ACE Hardware Stores
Member of Small Business Rising
Washington, DC
“I don’t think that Facebook and Google have small businesses’ best interest in mind. Their number one duty is to maximize profit any way they can and Big Tech is holding up small business as their human shield. Facebook and Google should stop trying to small business wash what they’re doing.”
Aaron Seyedian
Founder of Well-Paid Maids
Member of the Main Street Alliance
Takoma Park, MD
These small business owners represent a diverse array of industries across the country. Main Street Against Big Tech collected these stories in partnership with Main Street Alliance and Small Business Rising.
For More Stories
See Main Street Against Big Tech’s report on “Big Tech’s Main Street Squeeze: Stories from Small Business Owners”
Main Street Against Big Tech in the news:
Tech Crunch
Tech watchdog campaign challenges big tech for hiding behind small business
October 22, 2021
Richmond Times-Dispatch
Guadalupe Ramirez column: For small businesses in Richmond and beyond, Facebook is no ally
November 27, 2021
Share Your Story
Are you a small business owner? How do Big Tech companies affect your business? We want to hear from you. Feel free to drop us a message below.