Big tech companies person earned billions from US authorities contracts handed retired during the alleged "War connected Terror", a study said.
Tech giants made billions done contracts with the US subject and different authorities agencies during the alleged "war connected terror", according to a study released up of the 20th day of 9/11.
The "Big Tech Sells War" report, published Thursday by 3 US run groups, documented an detonation of authorities contracts with Amazon, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Twitter since 2004.
The tech companies' contracts were "primarily with agencies cardinal to the War connected Terror," said the report.
"From 2004 to today, Big Tech corporations person seen a immense ascent successful national request for their services, peculiarly from the Pentagon and Department of Homeland Security," it said.
The request from US subject and intelligence agencies for unreality computing and GPS bundle has surged since 2001 arsenic the defence manufacture has grown progressively digitized.
The Department of Defense unsocial has spent $43.8 cardinal connected Big Tech contracts since 2004, said the report, a collaboration betwixt the Action Center connected Race and the Economy and societal justness groups LittleSis and MPower Change.
Four of the 5 top-spending agencies connected Big Tech contracts were "central to foreign policy oregon were established arsenic a nonstop effect of the Global War connected Terror", it said.
"Amazon and Microsoft successful peculiar pulled up successful caller years, with Amazon signing astir 5 times and Microsoft signing 8 times arsenic galore national contracts and subcontracts successful 2019 compared to 2015," the study said.
The study said Microsoft had benefited from a leap successful defence contracts during the Trump administration, with a six-fold summation successful the fig of deals signed betwixt 2016 and 2018.
Contracts with "traditional" subject and defence contractors, specified arsenic aerospace companies Raytheon and Northrop Grumman, person meantime declined successful caller years.
AFP has reached retired to the 5 Big Tech companies for comment, but has yet to person a response.
The study pulled its information from Tech Inquiry, an online instrumentality that allows users to research US authorities contracts.
The instrumentality lone includes contracts for which accusation is publically available, truthful the figures fixed successful the study are "very apt an underrepresentation", the study said.
Its authors meantime criticized a "revolving door" improvement betwixt Big Tech and US information agencies, with erstwhile elder authorities officials going connected to instrumentality large roles astatine exertion companies.
The study cited erstwhile State Department authoritative Jared Cohen, present astatine Google, arsenic an example, arsenic good arsenic Amazon's Steve Pandelides—formerly of the FBI—and Microsoft's Joseph D. Rozek, who helped recovered the Department for Homeland Security, arsenic examples.
© 2021 AFP
Citation: Big Tech made billions during 'war connected terror': study (2021, September 10) retrieved 10 September 2021 from https://techxplore.com/news/2021-09-big-tech-billions-war-terror.html
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