Reconceptualising the crimes of Big Tech.

Big Tech holds out a mythology of exceptionalism – promising disruption and innovation, operating on a pristine, otherworldly, abstract, imaginary plane – that is, the immaterial rather than the material. It holds itself out as different and separate from the ‘old’ economy and its concerns about material harms to people and the environment. Whilst there is increasing recognition of the harms of Big Tech, even these seem to be exceptional and epic, posing threats to democracy and our souls. This article argues against glamour of exceptionalism by Big Tech and instead contends that Big Tech epitomises problems of ascribing criminal liability to corporations – on steroids. This article aims to disrupt the myth and cultural imaginary of Big Tech as exceptional by teasing out various themes of legally enshrined corporate irresponsibility to highlight commonalities and to argue that corporations (including those that are part of Big Tech) urgently need to be regarded and regulated as criminal legal subjects. Far from exceptional and immaterial, Big Tech operates by a familiar playbook that enables it to externalise banal, routine harms that can and should be the subject of law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]