#big-tech

#big-tech

The new year has so far not been kind to the share price of Big Tech stocks, particularly the so-called Magnificent 7. These seven companies-Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Tesla-are America's tech crown jewels. Combined, they have their hands in the hottest areas of tech, including artificial intelligence, mobile computing, chipmaking, and transportation. Yet all of these tech companies have seen their share prices decline since the beginning of the year.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez pledges to end impunity' of platforms X, Meta and TikTok in promoting harmful content. The Spanish government has ordered prosecutors to investigate social media platforms X, Meta and TikTok for allegedly spreading AI-generated child sexual abuse material, the prime minister has said. These platforms are undermining the mental health, dignity, and rights of our children, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez posted on his X account on Tuesday. The state cannot allow this. The impunity of these giants must end.

With an eye towards luring more AI investment to the country, India is hosting a four-day AI Summit this week that will be attended by executives from major AI labs and Big Tech, including OpenAI, Anthropic, Nvidia, Microsoft, Google, and Cloudflare, as well as heads of state.

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground.

A total of 95 billion scam ads were seen in total by UK users during 2025, culminating in an average of 1,258 in money lost per scam. That figure was the second-highest in Europe, behind only Ireland (1,292), while the companies hosting social media platforms generated an estimated 430m in revenue across the year from adverts targeting British consumers with scams. The findings, by Juniper Research for banking app Revolut, show this is projected to rise to 137bn impressions per year by 2030 in the UK alone and approaching 1.5 trillion across Europe as a whole.

The Department of Justice has released what appears to be its last tranche of files related to convicted sex offender and disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. In all, the DOJ has released around 3.5 million pages in response to the Epstein Files Transparency Act of November 19, 2025. The files paint a portrait of Epstein's connections-including a number of familiar names in the Silicon Valley billionaire set.

Economic boycotts are a familiar tool of protest. The problem is they often place the greatest strain on the smallest businesses. That was the case during Friday's nationwide general strike, which was designed to pressure the Trump administration to dial back its aggressive anti-immigration policies. For many small business owners, the shutdown created a dilemma. Supporting the cause often means losing a day's revenue and risking their ability to keep staff employed. Across social media, owners voiced solidarity alongside an apology for staying open.

The other day I was browsing YouTube - as one does - and I clicked a link in the video description to a book. I was then subjected to a man-in-the-middle attack, where YouTube put themselves in the middle of me and the link I had clicked: Hyperlinks are subversive. Big Tech must protect themselves and their interests.

As part of Wikipedia's 25th anniversary, parent company Wikimedia a slew of partnerships with AI-focused companies like Amazon, Meta, Perplexity, Microsoft and others. The deals are meant to alleviate some of the cost associated with AI chatbots accessing Wikipedia content in enormous volumes by giving the tech companies streamlined access. As noted by , the timeline on these deals is a little squirrely.

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

Undoubtedly, there's still a lot of nerves out there over the latest wave of volatility, which may very well be the start of a painful, drawn-out move lower. As to whether we're in an AI bubble, though, remains a mystery. It'll probably be the big question going into the new year. With a recent wave of relief powering hard-hit AI stocks higher in the last few sessions, it seems like AI fears might be in an even bigger bubble than the AI stocks themselves.

Of the ten richest men in the world on Forbes' December 2025 list, only two didn't build their fortunes by running or founding a fully tech-driven company. They are the people who now shape how we think, how we have fun, how we vote, how the economy works, and ultimately whether the world moves forward or backward: Elon Musk (X), Larry Page (Alphabet), Larry Ellison (Oracle), Jeff Bezos (Amazon), Sergey Brin (Alphabet), Mark Zuckerberg (Meta), Jensen Huang (Nvidia), and Michael Dell (Dell).

As far as I was concerned, Australia's world-first social media law aimed at preventing children under 16 from accessing social media apps was already a success. But this week, as the ban took effect, my son wasn't so sure. Access to his accounts remained largely unchanged. Many of his friends were in the same position. Across the country, the rollout has been uneven, as social media companies try to work out how to verify kids' ages.

Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story. The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls.

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

Look, what we have seen, Bill, is that tech companies care about one thing, and that's their bottom line. Time and time again, we have exposed what they are doing to children, what these algorithms do. Look, the data speaks for itself. Bill, I know that you have taken a look at this, but one in three high school young women last year said she actually considered death by suicide.

Shares of Apple Inc. were battered earlier this year as the iPhone maker faced repeated complaints about its lack of an artificial intelligence strategy. But as the AI trade faces increasing scrutiny, that hesitance has gone from a weakness to a strength and it's showing up in the stock market. Through the first six months of 2025, Apple was the second-worst performer among the Magnificent Seven tech giants, as its shares tumbled 18% through the end of June. That has reversed since then, with the stock soaring 35%, while AI darlings like Meta Platforms Inc. and Microsoft Corp. slid into the red and even Nvidia Corp. underperformed.