Own a mobile phone? Then you’re paying the ‘app tax’. It’s a racket and it’s time the UK faced Apple and Google down | Chi Onwurah

A deep-seated duopoly allows the tech giants to exploit the public and developers. But the regulator has powers to stop this abuse – it should use them

• Chi Onwurah is the Labour MP for Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West and chair of the parliamentary science, innovation and technology committee

Debates around big tech and digital regulation can sometimes feel distant from the everyday concerns of voters. But the power that a small number of global tech companies hold over our lives goes far beyond what most people realise.

As chair of the parliamentary science, innovation and technology committee, I have spent years raising concerns about this: from the data they harvest and the digital “twins” they build of us, to the algorithms that decide what our children see.

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