For decades, Apple, Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Meta operated with few rules and boundaries. As their power, wealth and reach grew, a wave of regulatory activity, legislation and legal cases erupted against them in Europe, the United States, China, India, Canada, South Korea and Australia. Now that global tipping point for the biggest tech companies to relax has finally been reversed.
Companies have been forced to change the everyday technology they offer, including devices and features of their social networking services, which have been particularly felt by users in Europe. Companies are also making consequential changes that are less visible, for example in their business models, trading and data sharing practices.
The degree of change is evident at Apple. While the Silicon Valley company once offered its App Store as a unified marketplace around the world, it now has different rules for App Store developers in South Korea, the European Union and the United States due to new laws and court rulings. The company withdrew its proprietary iPhone charger design due to other EU legislation, meaning future iPhones will have a charger that will work with non-Apple devices.
The changes mean that people’s technology experiences will increasingly differ depending on where they live. In Europe, Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat users under 18 no longer see ads based on their personal data, the result of a 2022 law called the Digital Services Act. Elsewhere in the world, young people still see such ads on these platforms.
The tech industry is essentially maturing and becoming more like banking, cars and healthcare, with companies adapting their products and services to local laws and regulations, said Greg Taylor, an Oxford University professor who focuses on competition in technology markets.
