Between Russian interference in the US presidential election, the spread of “fake news” more broadly, one-click online ordering for almost anything I need, and my cellphone that now seems to know more about me than I might know myself, I’m amazed by the influence that internet companies like Facebook, Twitter, Google, and Amazon have so quickly amassed. Their power is undeniable, and it is also inescapable.
Silicon Valley’s largest companies enjoy a market capitalization that is now on par with the GDP of some of the largest metropolitan areas in the United States. And use of social media has skyrocketed from 11 percent of American adults in 2006 to nearly 70 percent a decade later.
The Internet giants amassed this significant influence over our daily lives over the past few years, but they have now been catapulted into the limelight in the most unconventional of circumstances. Thanks to President Trump’s notoriously active thumbs, Twitter became a prerequisite reading source on most mornings of 2017, and the President even took to social media to announce major policy changes—a remarkable deviation from his predecessors’ protocol.
More details are also emerging about the role that Russia-backed social media accounts might have had on influencing the election’s outcome, and the extent to which these platforms were exploited to sow misinformation during the campaigns. Just last month, lawyers from Facebook, Twitter, and Google testified on Capitol Hill amid mounting public pressure and calls for further investigations.
But most troubling for lawmakers and regular citizens alike is what to do about all this influence. We know these companies, on which we gratefully rely for so many modern conveniences, aren’t going anywhere. Yet we can’t help but be somewhat frightened by their potentially limitless capabilities and their ability to be maliciously misused. This conundrum is one shared on both sides of the political aisle, and placing common sense regulations on Internet giants may prove to be a legitimate shot at bipartisan collaboration in the near-term.
As the pressures mount, the Internet giants are quickly finding themselves in terra incognita. With the weight of big tech’s influence on the 2016 election still on Washington’s mind, and the upcoming midterm elections around the corner, lawmakers will see 2018 as ripe for action. Legislative proposals like the Honest Ads Act will no doubt continue to roll in.
As a result, my colleagues at the Global Business Policy Council and I predict that due to the dangerous consequences of unregulated technological influence, scrutiny of the internet giants’ power and autonomy will reach a fever pitch in 2018, leading to the passage of new regulations. This is true not only in the United States—although much attention will be focused on what happens on Capitol Hill—but also in Europe, China, and elsewhere. Regulations will likely differ across national borders, leading to a complicated patchwork of compliance issues.
The bottom-line: in what is sure to be a frenetic, US midterms-dominated 2018, internet companies should constructively engage in the policy formulation process and avoid “finger in the dike” obstruction of appropriate and effective regulation. Rather than being called to Capitol Hill for their next grilling, tech executives would be well advised to proactively work with legislators on areas of public concern.
One lesson that has held true over my career straddling the business and policy communities, is that leaders of great organizations cannot succeed by simply reacting to what is in front of them, whether it be the stock market, the headline of the day, or a newly implemented regulation. Instead, successful leaders are adept at looking beyond the headline, thinking about the longer term, and planning for any number of outcomes that may occur. Those who anticipate and surf the wave ahead do better than those overcome by it.
To be fair, there have been recent examples of incremental improvements on the part of the dominant Internet companies that demonstrate an ability and willingness to change. Facebook and Twitter released many of the Russian advertisements related to the election, and Google’s YouTube recently took down the videos of extremist terrorist and other potentially harmful videos. But actions like these are likely to prove too little, too late and need to be overtaken by more proactive, constructive initiatives.
This is a pivotal and opportune moment for these companies to prove to the world that they can offer a safe, reliable means by which we can engage with one another online, regardless of political affiliation, gender, race, religion, class, or ethnicity. They need to rebuild the trust many have lost, and part of that will entail a concerted effort to self-regulate content regardless of the political winds of the day.
And so, my call to action for the Zuckerbergs of this world is to solve this transparency problem. Think further about your role in society, and how the incredible technologies you’ve built are ushering in a new era and way of living. It’s no small task, but these companies were built on disrupting the status quo, and I have no doubt that they can do the same again.
source: forbes.com
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