Politicians across the spectrum are now agreed that the powers of the big tech companies must be curbed. The surveillance economy appears as an existential threat to democracy. Self-regulation is no longer enough. But it is a long way from sentiment to policy. Monday’s report from the digital, culture, media and sport select committee set out a path. In this work it has had no help from the companies it believes need regulating.
Facebook, in particular, has shown itself to be arrogant and dishonest. Not only did Mark Zuckerberg refuse to present himself to the committee, as even Rupert Murdoch has done: the underlings he sent in his place gave misleading or untrue accounts. To quote the report: “Facebook seems willing neither to be regulated nor scrutinised … Facebook intentionally and knowingly violated both data privacy and anti-competition laws … We consider that data transfer for value is Facebook’s business model and that Mark Zuckerberg’s statement that ‘we’ve never sold anyone’s data’ is simply untrue.”
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