The social media and tech industry try to present a ‘progressive’ face. The companies talk about valuing their ‘loyal staff’ and they promote policies of ‘diversity’ to claim a positive image.
But corporations like Facebook, Google, Twitter, and Microsoft are the robber barons of the 21st century. Their aim is global dominance to get super profits.
Thus, Microsoft’s Windows operating system drives 75% of the world’s desktop computers; Facebook and its subsidiary, Instagram, have captured 82% of the world’s social media traffic; Google has conquered 92% of the global search engine market and its Android operating system drives over 80% of the world’s smartphones.
With this level of monopoly dominance, they get huge profits. In 2021, for example, Google made $76 billion in profits while Microsoft made $138 billion.
These corporations believe that ‘taxes are for the little people’. So, they scour the world looking for tax havens so that they can minimise the fraction of their profits taken for public services.
This is why they have chosen Ireland.
Officially Ireland operates a corporation tax rate of 12.5% but the question is: of what?
Companies can declare gross profits and then run up a host of administrative expenses that reduce what is to be declared as their taxable income.
The big tech and social media companies use Irish legal firms and tax planners to reduce this taxable income to minuscule proportions. This is done with the support and connivance of the right-wing government.
But now there is a small dip in the profits of these companies. For the first time, their endless expansion seems to be coming to a close.
There are a variety of reasons for this. The emergence of TikTok has cut into the customer base on Facebook. Apple has restricted third-party access so it is more difficult to track customers with advertisements. Overall, there is a fall in advertising revenue. Here is the Financial Times report:
‘Advertisers are on track to spend $65.3bn on networks such as Facebook, Snap and Twitter this year, a year-on-year increase of just 3.6 per cent. That is about 10 times slower than in 2021, according to estimates from eMarketer. The social media slowdown is such that its forecast growth rate for 2022 is almost the same as traditional media such as television and radio, whose audiences have been shrinking for years.’
Source: https://www.ft.com/content/0abf4840-2f5a-4eae-8414-1dfda77750b0
Despite making huge profits during Covid shutdowns, the greed of the social media companies means they are sacking workers.
Twitter has made 500 of its Irish workforce redundant; Facebook is expected to let about 350 go; Stripe is sacking 80.
All of this raises long-term problems for the Irish state. They know that investment in Ireland – even with all its tax dodging opportunities – is likely to slow down. Yet the government has banked on these companies as the core base for their industrial strategy.
The workers of these companies face a choice.
Will they go along with the paternalist techniques that give share options, gym facilities, and other goodies; while they expect you to work ‘beyond the contract’ and sell your soul to the company?
Or will they join a trade union? A union can cut across the fake freedoms these companies give and establish proper rights for workers. Including a right not to be treated like a disposable hankie.
This is why People Before Profit are urging these workers to JOIN A UNION. If you want help or more information, contact People Before Profit at [email protected] or phone in confidence on 0833902063.
