This past weekend The Wall Street Journal ran a front-page story on a global “wave” of regulations aimed at U.S. tech giants. The new regulatory efforts have three main targets:
- Objectionable content. France plans to give government officials wide powers to audit and fine social media media companies like Facebook if they fail to remove hateful content; Australia’s parliament last month passed a similar law regarding violent content.
- Barriers to competition. India is investigating Google for using its operating system to block competitors, while the European Union (EU) recently fined Google more than $4 billion for alleged abuse of its market position. Prominent politicians in several countries, including the U.S., have begun calling for the break-up of the biggest tech companies.
- Breaches of Privacy. The EU has instituted far-reaching limits on on how companies handle user data in an effort to protect privacy, while the Federal Trade Commission here is working on a settlement with Facebook that might reach $5 billion for alleged breaches of privacy
This is an impressive list, one that seems to lengthen almost weekly. Still, as noted in a previous post, greater government protections, whatever form they take, aren’t likely to eliminate the need for consumer caution–or for an alternative like EnCiv, whose non-profit status will allow it to take its commitment to privacy and thoughtful discourse seriously.
