Larry Page
The other co-founder of Google, is now the CEO of Alphabet post-restructuring. Both of them make the list because they are estimated to have similar net worths hovering around $38 billion, but they also both make the list because of just how powerful Alphabet really is. In addition to its latest, cutting-edge achievements, let’s not forget that the U.S. Congress under President George W. Bush amended the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act in 2008 to enable the NSA to employ mass surveillance programs like Prism and XKeyscore as disclosed in 2013 by Edward Snowden. By way of FISA, the government accessed Google’s data centers to collect mass information on millions of people. Much of the scandalous things the NSA was able to do required Google’s cooperation. Brin and Page both make the list for running something that powerful.
Mark Zuckerberg
The founder of Facebook is one of the wealthiest people in the world regardless of what losses his net worth has taken in the last year and a half. Wealth, though, is hardly the source of his true power. Facebook is the quintessential social media network—the standard by which other social media networks are measured. Instagram is arguably the next most popular social media network, and it is merely a subsidiary of Facebook since its billion-dollar acquisition in 2012. Facebook co-opts BuzzFeed’s ad optimization services and uses its profile layout and other features to create ideological bubbles that became a large focus of discussion during the 2016 election. For example, on The Daily Show, Trevor Noah broached the topic of polarized media using the example of a fictitious story circulating Facebook about Bill Clinton having an illegitimate, black son, making the argument that those who receive which stories is based on what articles, topics, and pictures people have previously clicked on Facebook. NPR and other media outlets have discussed this idea as well, which suggests that Facebook may have a huge impact on Americans’ perspectives and views.
Jeff Bezos
As founder of Amazon, Bezos revolutionized e-commerce as a concept. At a net worth of $56.6 billion, he runs a company that thrives on one of the most widespread logistics networks in the world. Amazon.Com utilizes every conceivable form of transportation to move goods around the world, and the control of multiple, large-scale modes of transportation gives Amazon the untapped potential to facilitate just about any kind of operation imaginable, even illegal ones. Aside from uses often depicted in movies like smuggling, Amazon deals with governments all over the world in order to operate in other countries several different ways, which represents an invaluable, international power that all companies covet.
