There are different waves of tech-and-media Goliath stories hitting Washington at about the same time, but the highlight was Facebook CEO’s appearance on Capitol Hill. Mark Zuckerberg apologized to lawmakers Tuesday for his tech company’s shortcomings with regard to the management of user data and privacy, but he also defended Facebook’s larger business model and its overall utility to the world. An interesting element of this show was that legislators in Washington remained much divided on the issue of how to best manage the recent scandal.
This hearing came in the midst of revelations that a UK data firm had unethically accessed the personal data of some 87 million Facebook users. Zuckerberg said that Facebook was currently undergoing a “broader philosophical shift in how we approach our responsibility as a company.” Zuckerberg also said it was possible that the user data retrieved by the data firm might overlap with the agency that executed the Russian operation which sought to undermine the US presidential election back in 2016. “We believe that it is entirely possible that there will be a connection there,” said Zuckerberg.
At the crux of the issue is whether or not the government can (and should) be regulating big tech companies—such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. With the policy option of legislating strong regulatory frameworks for the industry at large usually takes bipartisan consensus, and the current political climate makes consensus unlikely. Lawmakers including Sen. Ted Cruz among others questioned Zuckerberg on whether the company was managing online contents and data in a manner that inclined to the left—or liberal. Zuckerberg immediately pushed back on the accusation that his company could weight job candidates and people running for public office as according to their political orientation.
GOP lawmakers have been, more than ever before, torn between the mounting public pressure to strengthen tech regulation especially in the face of recent Cambridge Analytica scandal and their traditional philosophy of deregulation. Some Republicans in Congress are likely to put on a show in front of live TV audience in the days to come and especially so when Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg delivers his testimony. These Republicans—including Sens. John Thune and John Kennedy—have been more receptive to issues like industry regulation ever since the Cambridge Analytica scandal exploded. They are, however, still not over the traditional conservative aversion to regulation—let alone representative of the majority of their colleagues on Capitol Hill.
Speaking to a small group of broadcasting executives at the National Association of Broadcasters annual meeting in Las Vegas, Republican FCC Commissioner Michael O’Rielly touted the FCC’s accomplishments rolling back regulations that have allowed Sinclair Broadcasting Group to grow exponentially. “It’s quite evident that there are more platforms and services pushing video content and viewpoints to the American public. To me that doesn’t mean regulate more to combat against wild, wild West of content,” said O’Rielly. “Instead, it means getting out of the way so everyone, including broadcasters can survive, thrive and compete in todays and tomorrows competitive media marketplace.”
At the same time, some legislators on Capitol Hill seem to believe that regulation of Facebook and other online platforms is on the table. “Part of this is fleshing out what’s Facebook’s responsibility, what role do we have as policymakers, our regulators, government et cetera, and where are those lines,” Sen. Thune told the press Monday. “We’re weighing it,” he added.
In short, one after another, regulators are making moves that underscore just how fast the media industry is changing, putting pressure on Washington to make sure laws keep up. The internet has generally been seen as a democratizing force for the flow of information by giving diverse voices more ways to reach Americans. But new technologies, like high-speed broadband and automation, have changed the way information reaches people on the internet. While the media establishment scrambles to reorganize their businesses, Washington and the rest of the world may be split on what to do.
Meanwhile, Facebook shares soared a whopping 4.5% on Tuesday with most of the increase occurring during Mr. Zuckerberg’s testimony on Capitol Hill with Zuckerberg’s own Facebook holding increasing in value by around $2.8 billion. Zuckerberg’s repeated emphasis that Facebook would remain open to letting civil rights groups audit whether its platform was being misappropriated for discriminatory activities might have helped him win back some of the lost public trust. Some lawmakers including Sen. Roger Wicker was relatively supportive of the IT Goliath claiming that he was more worried about the future of the company being over-regulated as a result of this scandal to which Zuckerberg replied that “there will always be a version of Facebook that is free.”
By MSEAP Cyber Secretariat (mseap@assembly.go.kr) |
