The wildest moment of *that* senate hearing
The wildest moment of *that* senate hearing
...it's not what you think it is...
My Take:
From heated exchanges to fumbling and unscripted apologies, last week's Senate hearing provided more drama than a Real Housewives reunion. I feel like it would’ve been much more entertaining if it wasn’t so horrifying – but it was still, admittedly, a little bit entertaining.
A lot of ink has been spilled on the heated exchange between Senator Lindsey Graham and Mark Zuckerberg. What has gone relatively under the radar is a comment made by Senator Whitehouse: “We are here in this hearing because as a collective, your platforms really suck at policing themselves.”
No disrespect to the Senator but if you think the tech industry will ever ethically self-regulate, I have some ocean-front property in Arizona I’d like to sell you.
Why *would* the big tech platforms self-regulate? By all accounts, their current strategy is working. Sure, they might get hauled up to The Hill to face some occasional humiliation, but then they return to monopolies where they sit on market caps larger than the GDP of most nations.
There have been industry associations that promote safe standards (for example, nutritional labeling in food and beverage, truthful advertising practices for ad-based businesses), but never in the history of capitalism has an oligopoly with GooG/Meta's market power unilaterally disarmed and moved to self-regulate. Never.
Again, due respect to Senator Whitehouse, but Big Tech CEOs weren’t testifying about the harms their products are doing because they failed to regulate themselves. They were testifying because the government has failed to regulate them.
Senator Lindsey Graham told Mark Zuckerberg yesterday that he had blood on his hands. It's probably true, but continued inaction by politicians and regulators makes them complicit, too. They would do well to look at their own hands.
What I’m Reading & Listening To:
Five Minutes That Will Make You Love Thelonious Monk VIA NYTimes
