Obama to companies: Engage governments to avoid the Facebook fate

Former President Barack Obama urged private businesses to come out of “isolation” and to engage more with governments when developing new products and services to avoid problems like those challenging Facebook. Obama told business leaders that “you cannot separate the business environment from the political and social environment.” “A good example is Facebook,” Obama said, referring to the public relations pummeling the social media company has received following US intelligence service reports that Facebook was a conduit for Russian election meddling in 2016. He said he genuinely believed the power of social media to connect people “is something that is potentially extraordinarily valuable and can be positive.” “But what is also true is that those systems were built in isolation (by private companies) detached from potential social consequences,” he added. 

Obama said he hoped to see business leaders engaging “more directly” with governments to keep politicians posted on new products and applications, but also as an acknowledgment that “there’s going to be issues involved” with technological innovations. “Too often, at least in the United States, there’s a tendency for business leaders to say, ‘Let’s just avoid the government as much as we can.’” “That strategy can work for a time, but eventually — as I think Facebook has now discovered — you’re going to have to engage,” the former president said.