Larger companies are easier to influence than small ones, no intimidation is necessary.
Protecting user privacy delivers close to 0 shareholder value, being friendly with nations wins you billions of dollars in contracts, regulatory protection, and friendly courts, it's a win-win for big companies and surveillance states to be friendly with each other.
By that logic, maybe unsurprisingly, the FANG's of the world have monopolies.
Who believes that their Apple-Google device doesn't phone home to Five Eyes directly or indirectly. Who would care or be surprised if they announced publicly that they did?
