Big Tech consumer-facing internet companies are unparalleled in their social reach and influence. As such, they pose both a threat and opportunity for the ruling class. In the US, there is little regulation as the owners of Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, are members of the bourgeoisie. However, they are subject to bourgeois rivalries and, hence, rival factions have them periodically dragged on public display to testify about their activities.
The increasingly monolithic CCP, in its current cycle of consolidation, has been concerned about the potential challenge that its own versions of social media giants wield through their platforms. The CCP tolerates capitalist activity in order to promote growth, while emergent capitalists seek to preserve their relative independence, and become independent power centers in society. Hence, Jack Ma of Alibaba was reigned in, beginning this latest round of notable regulation. The CCP is taking a more direct hand in managing its internet-content companies by acquiring stakes, filling board seats and sending dedicated regulators to police content at firms more frequently.
The acquisition of such stakes, called special management stakes, was first outlined in a Communist Party plenum in November 2013. In 2016, the government floated the idea of special shares in a draft proposal to the industry. The government suggested that authorities would take a small stake and a board seat in online news and media companies. China amended its online information law the following year to require such special management stakes. ByteDance Technology Co., the China-registered entity, in April sold 1% of its shares to a state-backed firm, according to publicly available government records. It also granted to the state-backed firm the right to appoint a director to its board, people familiar with the issue said. Weibo Corp. operator of a Twitter -like microblogging platform, sold a 1% stake in its Chinese entity to a state investor and granted it a seat on its board of directors. In 2018, Qutoutiao, a news aggregator that is listed in the U.S., sold a 1% stake to a subsidiary of state-run Shanghai United Media Group and allowed the state firm to designate one director to the board, according to corporate filings. (WSJ) Beyond the stake sales, the Cyberspace Administration of China, the country’s main internet regulator, has dispatched officials to internet media platforms regularly this year. (WSJ) new draft guidelines that would prevent its internet companies from engaging in anticompetitive practices such as unfairly blocking rival platforms, extending Beijing’s efforts to rein in the powerful technology sector. New guidelines, released by China’s State Administration for Market Regulation on Tuesday, include a detailed list of prohibited behaviors.
The development of independent centers of power was a primary cause of the USSR’s downfall, as the party lost control in favor of oligarchs assuming control of different aspects of the economy. When the last Soviet leader Gorbachev introduced policies of opening and restructuring, he validated the fact the party was no longer in control, eventually leading to the dissolution of the party and country. This lesson has not been lost on the CCP, hence the recent initiatives.
On the other hand, the US ruling class is composed of haute bourgeois oligarchs, who use and pay their parties to promote their interests, the only competition being other bourgeois members. For the moment, the oligarchs operate by self-regulating consensus, for example, by excluding Trump populists deemed threatening to their interests. As in China, their only social ‘benefit’ from the perspective of the ruling class is distraction.