{"id":1120984,"date":"2024-01-12T14:10:28","date_gmt":"2024-01-12T19:10:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/prometheism-transhumanism-posthumanism\/uncategorized\/can-the-world-harness-big-tech-without-muzzling-free-speech-news-decoder\/"},"modified":"2024-01-12T14:10:28","modified_gmt":"2024-01-12T19:10:28","slug":"can-the-world-harness-big-tech-without-muzzling-free-speech-news-decoder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/prometheism-transhumanism-posthumanism\/free-speech\/can-the-world-harness-big-tech-without-muzzling-free-speech-news-decoder\/","title":{"rendered":"Can the world harness big tech without muzzling free speech? &#8211; News-Decoder"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><p>    In 2021, newspaper publishing revenue within the United States    was down     30% from a decade prior. In Canada    in 2022, broadcast television revenue dropped more than        18% from the same period a decade    earlier. Yet revenue for internet providers doubled in about    the same time.  <\/p>\n<p>    Because most people get their news online, many fear that    digital technology companies are directly threatening the very    existence of news outlets, through various controls they exert    over how people get information and what information they get.  <\/p>\n<p>    This imbalance has been an international problem that    democratic nations around the world have been struggling to    address.  <\/p>\n<p>    Australia took the first step in February 2021, passing the        News Media and Digital Platforms Mandatory    Bargaining Code. Canada enacted the     Online News Act in June 2023. These laws forced    selected outlets like Google and Meta to pay for any news    website links that were posted on their sites or apps.  <\/p>\n<p>    In July 2022, the European Union signed and adopted a    significantly different approach in the     Digital Services Act package which    established a new group of regulators in contrast to the other    nations bills that empowered pre-existing agencies.  <\/p>\n<p>    Tension rippled throughout Australia before the legislation had    even passed. Meta protested by shutting down its Facebook    platform.  <\/p>\n<p>    It was an extreme reaction that demonstrated the power Meta and    other large digital companies have. Consider that the five most visited    websites in the world are owned by just two    corporations: Google and Meta. Moreover, in 2023 Google    controlled 92% of the global search    engine market.  <\/p>\n<p>    Worldwide, the news industry is in crisis. Some     40% of people trust their news.    That perhaps explains the proportionate decline in     global news interest. In the United    States public trust in the news media fell 54% overall in the    two decades prior to 2022.  <\/p>\n<p>    Add to that concerns over mass censorship committed by social    media outlets during the Covid-19 pandemic and the intrusive    data collection tactics used by big technology companies like    Google.  <\/p>\n<p>    This battle between governments and the tech oligarchy has    turned out to be much more complicated than many had hoped.  <\/p>\n<p>    Initially, Australia presented the News Media    and Digital Platforms Mandatory Bargaining Code. This    law forced selected digital intermediaries like Google and Meta    to pay for any Australian news website links that were posted    on their sites or apps. But before the legislation had even    passed, Meta protested by shutting down its platform Facebook    throughout Australia.  <\/p>\n<p>    After a two-week stalemate, intermediaries of Meta and Google    agreed to compensate Australian news outlets $200 million.    Although the bill passed, no digital intermediary has yet been    designated for regulation by the Australian Treasurer.  <\/p>\n<p>    Following this, the Canadian parliament passed its own    legislation, the Online News Act. Similar to Australias    legislation, Canadas new bill awarded power to a pre-existing    agency, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications    Commission. Its purpose, as explained in its Charter Statement,    was to help news businesses get fairly compensated by    introducing a bargaining framework applicable to news    intermediaries that hold a significant bargaining power    imbalance over news outlets.  <\/p>\n<p>    In an     11-page response to the proposed    legislation, Google said that the power imbalance was a flawed    premise that would always weigh against them. It also    considered the exemption provisions to be vague and broad.    While inclusion would depend on criteria such as the size of    the digital news intermediary and whether it occupied a    prominent market position, it did not quantify size or    prominent market position, Google argued.  <\/p>\n<p>    Metas president of global affairs, Nick Clegg, testifying at a        hearing of Canadas Heritage    Committee, said: Asking a social media company in 2023 to    subsidize news publishers for content that isnt that important    to our users is like asking email providers to pay the postal    service because people dont send letters anymore.  <\/p>\n<p>    In August 2023, Meta fully removed Canadian news outlets    content from its platforms within Canadian borders and Google    threatened to follow suit. What was originally intended to aid    the news media ecosystems had completely undercut the local and    independent publishers.  <\/p>\n<p>    At a time when wed normally be growing as quickly as    possible, weve completely retreated, posted Jeff Elgie, owner    of local news startup Village Media in Ontario, Canada, on his    X account. He referred to the C-18 bill as, poison for    business.  <\/p>\n<p>    Google argued that people must be able to freely find and share    links to news content online. Free expression, access to    information, press freedom and an informed citizenry depend on    that, it said.  <\/p>\n<p>    But Google never fully abandoned negotiations and as of    November 2023, it agreed to pay CAD $100 million annually, or    about USD $75 million to Canadian news outlets.  <\/p>\n<p>    In July 2022, the European Union signed and adopted a    significantly different approach in the     Digital Services Act (DSA) package.    The DSA tasks investigative and enforcement to Digital Service    Coordinators to be appointed by each member state no later than    14 February 2024.  <\/p>\n<p>    This archetype offers a clean slate, something that other    governmental regulations do not. Along with this, the bill specifies the    size of a company that will fall under the legislation: those    with average monthly active EU users at or above 45 million.  <\/p>\n<p>    Largely, the DSA contrasts other nations laws in both agency    structure as well as bill content. In response, entities such    as     Google and     Meta have publicly been more open    to the regulation and have been cooperating in its application.  <\/p>\n<p>    With this knowledge, and the threat of digital monopolies still    looming, the United States presented its own battle plan.  <\/p>\n<p>    In May 2023, Democrat Elizabeth Warren and Republican Lindsey    Graham introduced a bill in the U.S. Senate that would empower    a newly formed federal commission. The commission would have    investigative, enforcement and rule-making authority while    cooperating with the Department of Justice and the Federal    Trade Commission.  <\/p>\n<p>    The bill, aimed at all of Big Tech, is dubbed the     Digital Consumer Protection Commission Act of    2023. Similar to the EUs DSA, the U.S. act provides    specific values for inclusion based upon annual revenue or    monthly active users both within the United States and    globally.  <\/p>\n<p>    It requires qualifying digital platforms to be licensed, or be    immediately shut down and barred from legal operation. This    power alone would allow the commission to implement the acts    reforms aimed at company transparency, fair competition, user    privacy and national security.  <\/p>\n<p>    Failure to regulate tech companies till now in the United    States reflects a friendly attitude towards business in    general, said Julien Mailland, an assistant professor of    telecommunications at Indiana University who has studied and    written about Internet policy.  <\/p>\n<p>    Lack of regulation is a problem, but I think the lack of    regulation in general is linked to the ideological bent toward    not regulating corporations, Mailland said.  <\/p>\n<p>    Even if the United States could overcome the negative public    perception of regulation, Mailland worries about the formation    of a new agency that might lack the necessary experience in    such a new area of governance.  <\/p>\n<p>    Mailland pointed to Europes privacy regulators established    through a     data protection law it passed in    2018. The good thing about these agencies is that they have a    history of knowing what theyre doing, Mailland said.  <\/p>\n<p>    This history teaches valuable lessons that an experienced    commission could build on to enforce the legislation    effectively from the start and avoid the initial troubles new    agencies often experience.  <\/p>\n<p>    Outside of this, the United States and the EU specified their    inclusion standards; something the Canadian and Australian    bills did not. Mailland believed this to be a necessity as    subjective laws can be dangerous. There needs to be objective    criteria or else its the rule of the arbitrary, Mailland    said.  <\/p>\n<p>    The U.S. Supreme Court, meanwhile, will hear     multiple cases in 2024 regarding    the constitutional rights of social media outlets that could    affect how the law is applied.  <\/p>\n<p>    The cases will establish whether online forums are public    spaces. If they are established as such, user posts will be    completely protected from censorship. If not, then social media    outlets will be allowed to continue self-governance.  <\/p>\n<p>    Regardless of the outcomes, we likely havent seen an end to    attempts to regulate the digital oligopoly which currently    controls the most powerful space ever introduced to man: the    digital world.  <\/p>\n<p><!-- Auto Generated --><\/p>\n<p>See the original post here:<br \/>\n<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/news-decoder.com\/can-the-world-harness-big-tech-without-muzzling-free-speech\" title=\"Can the world harness big tech without muzzling free speech? - News-Decoder\" rel=\"noopener\">Can the world harness big tech without muzzling free speech? - News-Decoder<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> In 2021, newspaper publishing revenue within the United States was down 30% from a decade prior. In Canada in 2022, broadcast television revenue dropped more than 18% from the same period a decade earlier. Yet revenue for internet providers doubled in about the same time <a href=\"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/prometheism-transhumanism-posthumanism\/free-speech\/can-the-world-harness-big-tech-without-muzzling-free-speech-news-decoder\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[162384],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1120984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-free-speech"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/prometheism-transhumanism-posthumanism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1120984"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/prometheism-transhumanism-posthumanism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/prometheism-transhumanism-posthumanism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/prometheism-transhumanism-posthumanism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/prometheism-transhumanism-posthumanism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1120984"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/prometheism-transhumanism-posthumanism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1120984\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/prometheism-transhumanism-posthumanism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1120984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/prometheism-transhumanism-posthumanism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1120984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/prometheism-transhumanism-posthumanism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1120984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}