For several years, regulators, politicians, entrepreneurs and venture capitalists across the world have been whining about the seemingly limitless power wielded by America’s Big Tech, chiefly, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google and Microsoft. In India, apart from Amazon , these companies mostly had a free run—until recently. First, Facebook became the centre of a political crisis in August after The Wall Street Journal reported that one of its top executives had favoured the Bharatiya Janata Party and opposed the removal of hate speech by a BJP politician. Now, Google is facing an intense backlash from a group of companies led by Paytm , India’s most valuable startup. These companies have made a range of allegations against the American search giant: Google’s Play Store is exploiting its dominant position and enforcing unfair policies that punish local startups; Google makes too much money through advertising; and, Google’s power is a ...
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