A ROUGH WEEK FOR BIG TECH
Facebook had an interesting week ending with its two-page rebuttal of the Netflix doco ‘The Social Dilemma’. Unlikely to change many minds and surely alerting more viewers to the existence of the documentary, Facebook is making some PR swings recently thanks to Nick Clegg and co. Not to be outdone, Twitter went all-in on tweets that hope for the death of the ailing US President which you might say does score them nice-people/world brownie points but does take away the whole freedom of speech element.
We continue to see grownup platform sway and freeze in the world the helped create. Righty or wrongly, these platforms need to, and in some ways are, picking sides of right and wrong and making decisions about what is and isn’t ok. The next few decades are going to be defined by these platforms and how we not only use them but how we regulate them. Neither US candidate is in favour of leaving them unchecked but the Trump side does seem to be more aware of how to use them. Across the pond, the UK government and EU seek to limit their powers but through the courts and legal system. Now almost outside of the EU, the UK will be able to decide how these platforms can and can’t operate but will they? Facebook’s recent move to smoosh all the apps into one isn’t for consumer convenience; it’s to make it harder to be broken up. A move which will be a problem for all countries down the line. In the long-term, network effects always semi-seek to create monopolies or near-monopolies. We need to think differently when creating things instead of moving fast, and breaking things.
__ DO __ Move past the ‘they’re evil’ thinking. Instead, focus on how we move on and into a space that can be useful. Let’s talk about how we get to a better place. // __ DON’T __ Expect these platforms to be broken up easily. While powerful as they are for sure, the genie is out of the bottle and while doing so may slow a vice-like grip, doing so may just as well cause an even worse tool to emerge (Triller, anyone?).
WARNING! Last call to get your ‘Egg’ Tickets for TBD Confernece (Jan 28-29). The last drop just happened and the prices go up tomorrow!
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