Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Google, Twitter, TikTok logos<\/p>\n
Yesterday saw two huge clues for what Big Tech can expect in the years to come.<\/p>\n
In the US, both the Democrats and the Republicans now have a fixed position on regulating tech.<\/p>\n
They are both totally different.<\/p>\n
First off Trump.<\/p>\n
After the President shared a piece of disinformation on Facebook and Twitter about the relative dangers of Covid, the two companies reacted: Twitter hid his post and Facebook removed it altogether.<\/p>\n
Trump responded by tweeting \"Repeal Section 230!!!\".<\/p>\n
This is a key piece of legislation that stops companies like Facebook and Twitter from being liable for the things people post.<\/p>\n
It essentially gives them \"platform\" rather than \"publisher\" status.<\/p>\n
Just imagine for a second if all of the posts on Facebook - all of the accusations, all of the libellous content, all of it - was the responsibility of Mark Zuckerberg.<\/p>\n
It doesn't work. Without Section 230 companies like Facebook, Twitter, TikTok etc couldn't function as they do now. They'd potentially have to moderate your content in real time.<\/p>\n
Even for the most powerful artificial intelligence systems, that is not possible.<\/p>\n
You might think: \"Trump says he'll repeal Section 230, but will he actually?\"<\/p>\n
My response would be: \"Look at TikTok.\"<\/p>\n
Trump has well and truly followed up on his actions - without a judge's last minute intervention it would be illegal for Apple and Google's app stores to offer TikTok for download in the US now.<\/p>\n
It's perfectly conceivable that a Trump presidency would follow through with his campaign threats.<\/p>\n
Plenty of Republicans believe that much of social media has an anti-conservative bias. Trump would certainly find support from his own party to act.<\/p>\n
The other big tech news from Tuesday was the release of The House Judiciary Committee's report into \"antitrust\".<\/p>\n
This is the idea that Big Tech has got so big it is now flouts anti-competition rules.<\/p>\n
This is a Democrat-led committee - the report was written by Democrats.<\/p>\n
Story continues<\/p>\n
The report concludes:\"To put it simply, companies that once were scrappy, underdog start-ups that challenged the status quo have become the kinds of monopolies we last saw in the era of oil barons and railroad tycoons.\"<\/p>\n
The share price of all four company's dived as soon as the report was released.<\/p>\n
Literally, the first recommendation is to prohibit \"dominant platforms from operating in adjacent lines of business\".<\/p>\n
That would be massive. It could potentially stop companies like Google owning YouTube. Or Facebook owning Instagram.<\/p>\n
The word \"monopoly\" is used 120 times in the report.<\/p>\n
These weren't bi-partisan recommendations though - Republicans didn't support all the findings.<\/p>\n
However, there is some common ground between the parties.<\/p>\n
For example, Republican Ken Buck has said he agrees with much of the report.<\/p>\n
And in terms of Section 230, Biden has also indicated he could support getting rid of it - albeit for different reasons to Trump.<\/p>\n
And so we have two Presidential candidates, each with his own stick to bash Big Tech.<\/p>\n
The company that perhaps is least hedged against these two approaches is Facebook. It's hard to know which option would be worse for the social network.<\/p>\n
For others, well there's now a reasonable argument that can be made that Trump would be better.<\/p>\n
Republican focus on social media bias would pretty much leave Apple and perhaps Amazon untouched.<\/p>\n
The election issues in this campaign have been centred around Covid, Black Lives Matter, the economy and law enforcement.<\/p>\n
But make no mistake, this is a huge election for Big Tech too.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The rest is here:<\/p>\n
Big Tech: Between a rock and a hard place - Yahoo News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Google, Twitter, TikTok logos Yesterday saw two huge clues for what Big Tech can expect in the years to come. In the US, both the Democrats and the Republicans now have a fixed position on regulating tech. Continue reading