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Microsoft President: Democracy Is At Stake. Regulate Big Tech

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Re: Microsoft President: Democracy Is At Stake. Regulate Big Tech

#21

Post by bureaucrat »

aaronchall wrote: post #16
wslh wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is naive. Organizations and people depend on specific software and there is not replacement for any kind of app that is spying on you.

I've been doing it progressively over the past 10 years. I don't carry a smart phone (I'm looking at Linux ones now though). My wife and I use Linux on our laptops. I'm learning more every year about how to control it. It's not naive, it's just difficult. But it's worth doing. ---- What worth do I get? I get expertise. I get knowledge. I'm a programmer. I don't have a OS sending my information to Microsoft. I don't h…

And what ‘worth’, may I ask, did you get?

Re: Microsoft President: Democracy Is At Stake. Regulate Big Tech

#23

Post by aussieguy1234 »

If they pass a law requiring platforms to be responsible for content their users post, it'll be easy for big incumbents like Facebook to fall in line.

It will be much harder, however, for new platforms with less resources to comply. They may have to shut down instead.

Re: Microsoft President: Democracy Is At Stake. Regulate Big Tech

#24

Post by Barrin92 »

aj7 wrote: post #14

Warning. Regulation almost always favors incumbents.

This argument is always repeated within the first ten minutes of these discussions, but I don't really understand why anyone assumes that competition is somehow the panacea to every problem on the planet.

I don't want ten unregulated facebooks who all leak my data, I want one facebook that plays by reasonable rules. The dynamics of social networks which don't deliver value if they're fragmented has made the competition focus obsolete. When Zuckerberg makes this point he is obviously speaking in his self-interest but he is absolutely right and the dominance of his platform proves it.

The world isn't better off if half of the information is on bing and half of the information is on google, the world is better off if those large companies which do deliver benefits to end consumers by virtue of their centralisation are bound by law to implement reasonable standards.

Re: Microsoft President: Democracy Is At Stake. Regulate Big Tech

#25

Post by TheRealDunkirk »

mugwort13 wrote: post #19
bureaucrat wrote: post #8

Regulate yourselves, FFS. I don’t want my paid operating system to send my private information constantly to your company.

If this is your posture, I am assuming you don't use Android, ChromeOS, iOS, MacOS, Fire OS, or even some no paid OSes like Ubuntu.

Yeah, I ragged on Microsoft on this site for the tracking they built into Windows 10, and somebody posted a detailed list of references about the ways OSX was doing almost the same things. It was disappointing, and deflating.

Re: Microsoft President: Democracy Is At Stake. Regulate Big Tech

#26

Post by barry-cotter »

MichaelMoser123 wrote: post #13

Once upon a time public opinion was manipulated by TV and the big newspapers; now it is manipulated by new media companies. My stupid question is: where is the big difference?

The people who used to be able to manipulate public opinion are really, really pissed off that others are doing it and they’re even more pissed off that manipulating public opinion has become more difficult and people who aren’t respectable members of the elite are being listened to by the public.

Before the internet Sanders, Trump, AOC, Yang, they would never have gotten anywhere. The ruling class is pissed off that people aren’t doing what they’re told and they want to stuff the communications revolution genie back in its bottle.

Re: Microsoft President: Democracy Is At Stake. Regulate Big Tech

#27

Post by JohnJamesRambo »

hd4 wrote: post #9

Why can't big tech self-regulate? Why must it always be a solution that depends on big government instead? Why should anyone trust the government given the last few thousand years of history?

When, in the history of anything, have companies self regulated properly? It always ends up at the October 1929 stock market or worse.

Re: Microsoft President: Democracy Is At Stake. Regulate Big Tech

#30

Post by hos234 »

Zuckerberg & Co are going to play the 'we will loose to China card'. Which is going to slow down any kind of regulations...

What's weird is, why there is no great rumbling against China's big tech within China. By now Chinese big tech should have wrecked the same unintended consequences and damage as American big tech. Whats going on there?

I am guessing once things blow up there then we see global consensus on regulating Big Tech.

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