Skip links

Social media power – self-regulation or legislation

Should the big IT´s and social media´s power be regulated? The discussion  continues, most recently by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres who said he is worried about how much power the big companies already have. Facebook CEO Marc Zuckerberg said he is satisfied with policies regarding political and civic groups that his company introduced during the US election campaign and that he plans to introduce them worldwide.

Influential member of the European Parliament, Eva MEP Eva Kaili: Big tech can’t afford to ignore what EU is preparing working closely with EU Commission´s Vice President, Margrethe Vestager, about EUs digital policy in an interview with Moonshot.News said that ”when it comes to citizens’ privacy protection and freedom of speech it is democratically elected legislators deciding – not the big IT.” Legislation is needed, she says. “We cannot expect self-control and self-regulation – especially not from the superpowers and the big platforms.”

“DANGEROUS PRECEDENT”

Facebook and Twitter closed down former US president Donald Trump´s accounts in connection with a mob storming the Capitol Hill as the social media companies considered Trump not preventing but stimulating violent action. Facebook has submitted the closing to the company´s new Oversight Board to get its opinion about the action. The Board in its first decision reversed the Facebook take down of information in four of five tested cases but has not yet discussed the blocking of Trump´s accounts. However, the Board said that when Facebook artificial intelligence is used to take down content that the AI considers breaking Facebook policy, users should have the right to have the decision tested by a human editor.

Twitter CEO, Jack Dorsey, has said his company´s banning Trump from posting messages after the violence at the Capitol on January 6 was the “right decision,” but that it sets a dangerous precedent.

REGULATORY FRAMEWORK

When asked about the blocking of Trump´s accounts, UN Secretary-General Guterres told reporters there should be “a regulatory framework with rules that allow for that to be done in line with law.”

“I do not think that we can live in a world where too much power is given to a reduced number of companies. And I must say that I’m particularly worried with the power that they already have.”

Guterres also mentioned that data collection can not only be used for advertising but can also be used “to change our behaviour, and the risks of that to be used also, from a political point of view, for the control of citizens in countries.”

WORLDWIDE POLICY

Zuckerberg´s comments about political and civic groups that it enacted for US users during the election was made when the company presented its fourth quarter results and discussed the company´s future. He said he was satisfied with the policies and will extend them “for the long term.” He also said the company plans to introduce these policies worldwide, and is also looking for ways to “reduce” how much political content users see in their news feeds.

He mentioned efforts to remove Facebook groups that violate rules against violence or hate speech. He was quoted saying that “there are also a lot of groups that we may not want to encourage people to join even if they don’t violate our policies.”

Zuckerberg said this is why the company “stopped recommending civic and political groups in the US ahead of the election”.

“We’re continuing to find how this works and now, we plan to keep civic and political groups out of recommendations for the long term. And we plan to expand that policy globally.”

He also said, Facebook will be “taking steps to reduce the amount of political content in news feeds.”

SELF-CCONTROL

Member of the European Parliament, Eva Kaili, told Moonshot.News that legislation is need to regulate the internet: ”We cannot expect self-control and self-regulation – especially from the superpowers and the big platforms.”

Taking as an example the discussions about freedom of expression and censorship created when Facebook and Twitter shut down Trump´s accounts after the chaos at the Capitolium:

”I don’t want to judge the position that anyone has, the ideology. Maybe it was a relief, maybe the tension had been too high, but still it revealed that these platforms feel they have the superpower to decide how they protect democracy without being accountable, without proportionality, without following any legal procedure and without even being elected.”

”So now in Europe, we are regulating the internet and updating an existing regulation. We translate the offline world into digital rights. This is not always easy because of the virality and the lack of clarity around the user data online.”

DATA GOVERNANCE

Mentioning the proposed EU regulation on data governance and privacy presented in the autumn last year, Kaili is anyway optimistic despite difficulties:

”But the good thing is that now we already have on our table the services act for digital and the data governance. So we expect to manage to put some rules there and protect sensitive and personal data. It is important to take into consideration our metadata. It may perhaps not be considered to be sensitive. Still this data creates not just value for companies, but in the end these metadata can also be used to manipulate perceptions and attack our democratic systems.”

Moonshot News is an independent European news website for all IT, Media and Advertising professionals, powered by women and with a focus on driving the narrative for diversity, inclusion and gender equality in the industry.

Our mission is to provide top and unbiased information for all professionals and to make sure that women get their fair share of voice in the news and in the spotlight!

We produce original content, news articles, a curated calendar of industry events and a database of women IT, Media and Advertising associations.

    Do you want an experienced opinion on a job issue?
    Moonshot Manager is here to answer!

      Moonshot community sharing thoughts and ideas, in a anonymous, safe environment.