Some of the world’s largest companies have been accused of undermining democracy across the world by financially backing far-right political movements, funding and exacerbating the climate crisis, and violating trade union rights and human rights in a report published on Monday by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC).
Amazon, Tesla, Meta, ExxonMobil, Blackstone, Vanguard and Glencore are the corporations included in the report. The companies’ lobbying arms are attempting to shape global policy at the United Nations Summit of the Future in New York City on 22 and 23 September.
Examples? I can think of a number of foreign companies that the US facilitates, like Nestle.
The most blatant examples in recent years are Monsanto and the Diesel scandal. Monsanto was an untouchable force until they got essentially taken over and now it rains lawsuits to extract stupid german money from them. US courts wouldn’t be so willing to make them pay in a million years if they still were American.
Same with the Diesel scandal really, though the hypocrisy is even more obvious here. Again, stupid german money. American car makers that did the exact same thing? Slap on the wrist at best.
Miele tarifs under Trump? Well here he just feared superior quality, really. They didn’t even do anything.
And now we’re seeing the same treatment with foreign tech companies. The American government wants to block TikTok or at least be in full control of it but can’t really do so without looking like big fat hypocrites. And now other countries wonder if they should block Facebook, Google and Xitter for the same reason. They threaten democracy and our freedom.