23 Alarming Facts About Who Controls What We See

23 alarming facts about who controls what 4 billion of us see in our feeds.

More than 1 in 2 people on the planet use products provided by Meta and Google.

These companies are now embedding AI into their products. Google has a 90% share of global searches for information.

As AI filters our information it uses different sources than journalists.

Google's AI overviews are more likely to draw on You Tube or Google Maps than The FT or BBC. And they are already causing drops in web traffic to professional journalism of up 89%.

Chat GPT is more likely to give you answers to health queries based on Reddit or Wikipedia than the NHS or CDC.

With 19% of ChatGPT queries now for search, this matters. Evidence shows the AI phrases appearing in more Parliamentary debates.

The new role of AI in filtering information is worrying in a world where 54% of people in the US see social media as their main source of news.

What we see on those platforms is shaped by algorithms designed to capture our attention. 70% of YouTube watch time flows from algorithmic recommendations. On TikTok this is likely to be close to 100%.

A recent study applied 6 different algorithmic designs to a blackbox social media ecosystem populated by AI chatbots. All of them yielded echo chambers, polarisation and outsized influence for a small number of users.

Algorithmic social platforms are harmful - children spending more than 3 hours a day on social media have more than double the risk of future mental health problems - but they face looser regulation than newspapers ever did.

In late 2024 many social platforms pulled the plug on their efforts to limit the spread of harmful, hateful and deceitful content, citing their preference for 'free speech' - but it's hardly free if their algorithm decides what we see.

'This needs to change' you might say, but the financial power of these companies is insane. Meta and Alphabet alone have a market capitalisation greater than the GDP of every country on the planet except the US and China.

Their lobbying power is huge. Facebook spent $22.4 million on lobbying in the US in 2024 and has one lobbyist for every two members of Congress. More than ⅔ of lobbyists for Meta and Google in the EU are estimated to have worked for the European Commission!

The chances of forcing greater transparency & accountability are low whilst their owners rub shoulders at state dinners and politicians see them as an integral piece of future prosperity.

The Climate Action Network has more than 1800 NGO members worldwide but campaigners for a better information ecosystem are under attack as 'opponents of free speech'.

If you care about issues like migration and climate change we’re not going to make more progress until we fix the information environment.

There’s a direct relationship between that environment and democratic well-being. If you’re not already trying to change that already, it’s time to start - before it’s too late.