Brussels is fighting the tech giants, start-ups are already jumping in the gap

Brussels is working on two new laws to control the power of Big Tech restrict. Not everyone waits patiently for this to happen: start-ups, young fast-growing companies, are responding to the growing dissatisfaction with the internet giants.

For example, there is a more privacy-friendly alternative to Facebook from the Netherlands: Quodari. The platform went live last year. Fanatic user Wim van ‘t Einde shares the photos of his puppy Banjer. “You make collections and you share them with connections.”

Van ‘t Einde also shares collections on photography and regional archaeology. They don’t just have to consist of photos; on the platform, you can store almost anything, including text files and videos. The app is therefore a kind of cloud service with a social sauce.

No data trading

Quodari does not use algorithms to make recommendations to users, does not track users, and does not trade data. It’s free, but you have to pay for more storage space and features. “It is often said that there is no alternative to Facebook and we have to,” says founder Paul Pennarts. “Now there is an alternative and everyone can make a choice.”

According to Pennarts, there is little competition in this area. There are only some privacy-friendly browsers and messaging apps. Browsers Vivaldi and Protonmail, among others, are in an international coalition with Quodari. Pennarts hopes that these kinds of tech companies will get the wind in their backs if the European Union restricts the major competitors.

Ex-Facebook employee Frances Haugen recently made an extra dent in the image of Meta, as the company that Facebook falls under is now called. Haugen revealed that the company prioritizes making a profit over user safety. Documents she shared show that the company actually amplifies hate speech and misinformation and encourages division among users.

Cosmetics chain Lush said goodbye to Instagram and Facebook. “Young girls are our biggest fans but are being harmed by these social media platforms,” ​​the company said.

The bath bomb giant also discontinued Snapchat and TikTok. “These platforms all focus on viewer maximization, with proven harmful effects. We are trying to achieve the opposite: well-being.”

Addressing advertisers on Facebook can be effective, American marketer Nandini Jammi has proven with her company CheckMyAds. She points out to companies that their ads often end up on websites that spread disinformation or polarizing messages:

The ten million Lush followers now get the message ‘Be Somewhere Else‘ to see. The international chain, which has a turnover of more than a billion euros worldwide, has not seen a drop in revenues to date. Lush is still active on YouTube, Pinterest and LinkedIn, but does not do sponsored posts and does not advertise in any way.

In 2020, some 1,000 companies stopped advertising on Facebook after the Black Lives Matters demonstrations, in response to the platform’s lax crackdown on hate speech from far-right groups.

It barely hurt Facebook’s revenue. Changes at Big Tech therefore seem to have to come from legislation, certainly as long as the more privacy-friendly competitors are still relatively small.