Facebook VP argues for regulation of internet

Author Moonshot.news

Published on: 25/05/2021

Regulation of the internet is overdue, argues Nick Clegg, Facebook’s vice president of global affairs, in an op-ed article published by the CNBC.com.

“For too long, many of these important issues have been left to private companies to deal with alone. Far from resisting regulation, Facebook has advocated it in a number of areas for some time now”, he writes calling for a bipartisan approach in Washington.

“Around the world, lawmakers are writing the new rules of the internet. In Europe, India, Australia, the UK and elsewhere, laws are being proposed governing everything from privacy and content, to the size and competitiveness of technology companies and how data is held, shared and used at scale.”

BIG TECH BREAK-UP

“President Biden has called for a global alliance of “techno-democracies,” but efforts to regulate tech in Washington have stalled. Much of the domestic debate is devoted to whether to break up big tech companies, but not on the fundamental societal issues at stake — like rules around privacy, safety, content, and data sharing — which can only be fixed by regulation.”

Clegg says it’s increasingly clear there are contrasting visions of what the internet should be, arguing for openness valued by Americans and mentioning Chinese surveillance presenting ”a risk to the open internet. Other countries, including Vietnam, Russia and Turkey have taken steps in a similar direction.”

DATA TRANSFER

Clegg also addresses transfer of data between the EU and the US saying “seamless data flows are the life blood of an open internet. But European court rulings have thrown data transfers between the EU and US into doubt.”

He calls for a bipartisan approach in Washington for action mentioning:

• Reform of Section 230 (US legislation that generally provides immunity for website platforms from responsibility for third-party content). Platforms should only be granted continued protection from liability for the content they carry if they can demonstrate that they have robust practices for identifying illegal content and quickly removing it.
• Congress could do more to protect against influence operations. Companies can and do take steps to root out organized networks seeking to mislead people and undermine public trust. But Congress can create deterrence that no industry effort can match.
• Congress can break the deadlock on federal privacy legislation. By looking for a sensible middle ground Congress could make real progress, for example by establishing strong regulatory enforcement, and giving businesses certainty to operate.
• Congress should set out clear rules on data portability to better enable people to move their data between services and “vote with their feet.” It could also create rules to govern how platforms should share data for the public good.
• Finally, to address these issues and more, the US could create a new digital regulator. Not only would a new regulator be able to navigate the competing trade-offs in the digital space, it would be able to join the dots between issues like content, data, and economic impact — much like the Federal Communications Commission has successfully exercised regulatory oversight over telecoms and media.