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From “techlash” to “techslog”

Ludwig Siegele: US technology editor, The Economist, SAN FRANCISCO

Reining in the tech giants, whether through lawsuits or legislation, will take time

2021 in brief

The trial begins in March in Delaware of Elon Musk, the boss of Tesla, who is accused of
breaching his fiduciary duties and personally enriching himself through Tesla’s
purchase in 2016 of SolarCity, a company that was founded by his cousins and failing
financially

“A STRONG AND widespread negative reaction to the growing power and influence of
large technology companies, particularly those based in Silicon Valley.” That is how the
Oxford English Dictionary (OED) defines “techlash”. The word, popularised in these
pages in 2013, has since been used in thousands of articles. Yet despite the term’s
popularity, not a lot has actually happened to rein in the power of the tech titans. This
will change in 2021. The techlash will begin in earnest—in the courts and in
parliaments.

Most headlines will be about the antitrust lawsuits in America. The most potentially
consequential was filed by the Department of Justice, in conjunction with some states,
against Alphabet in October 2020. It accuses Google’s parent of having illegally