UK civil society groups call for reduced dependence on major technology companies

A coalition of civil society organisations and campaigners has sent a letter to Prime Minister Andy Burnham calling for changes to the country’s approach to large technology companies.

The signatories argue that the concentration of economic and structural power among a small number of mainly US-based companies is limiting competition, innovation and consumer choice. They describe their proposals as an anti-monopoly approach rather than opposition to technology.

The letter calls for the Competition and Markets Authority to use its powers under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act more actively. It cites the authority’s cloud market investigation, which found that Microsoft and Amazon Web Services together controlled more than three-quarters of the national market.

The coalition also recommends a technology sovereignty strategy intended to support fair competition, domestic companies and a more diverse technology sector. It calls for the publication of the government’s full Chronic Risk Analysis, which reportedly identifies the dominance of global technology companies as a national risk.

The letter proposes binding environmental conditions for data centres. These include requirements to use renewable energy, limits on on-site gas generators and safeguards preventing data centres from competing with housing and other priority sectors for water or renewable power.

It also calls for public procurement to favour sustainable, open and domestically developed alternatives instead of automatically selecting dominant suppliers. The signatories specifically urge the government to end the NHS Federated Data Platform agreement with Palantir.

Signatories include ARTICLE 19, the Balanced Economy Project, Open Rights Group, Good Law Project, People vs Big Tech, Clean Up the Internet and the Movement for an Open Web, alongside several other organisations and one individual campaigner.