Platforms

Apparently, the White House is considering a potential Executive Order to address the ongoing-yet-unproven allegations of pro-liberal, anti-conservative bias by companies such as Facebook, Twitter, and Google.

Monitoring social media feeds is a common practice for major brands and companies trying to keep up with consumer sentiment and tastes. City governments are now tapping into those data streams to keep tabs on residents' chatter and complaints about what's happening around town.  Social media creates a wide-ranging sensor network of sorts that helps cities direct resources to what residents actually care about.

The Senate Judiciary Committee’s new tech task force leader, Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), wants to use her perch to hold tech companies accountable.

In July, the head of the Information Technology Industry Council published a warning against overly broad antitrust investigations that ‘could jeopardize American companies' leadership’ — a message that came amid rising regulatory heat on the group's members Apple, Amazon, Google, and Facebook. But it soon became clear that some in the Information Technology Industry Council didn't want to risk being seen as defending the four embattled tech giants.

For years, the very business models of platforms like Facebook and YouTube have come under fire for prioritizing whatever grabbed their users’ attention, often leading to feeds full of content that shocks or stokes outrage or divides.

Not long ago, many leading technologists considered themselves too lofty and idealistic to concern themselves with the petty affairs of government. But that was before privacy scandals, antitrust investigations, congressional hearings, Chinese tariffs, presidential tweets and Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA). Now, as they try to fend off regulation and avoid being broken up, some of the largest companies in Silicon Valley are tripping over their Allbirds in a race to cozy up to the United States government.

The incentives for foreign countries to meddle are much greater than in 2016, and the tactics could look dramatically different.

California-based company Cloudfare, which is a market leader in web infrastructure, was thrust into the spotlight of international debate after abruptly terminating its contract with 8chan, the far-right internet forum known for perpetuating conspiracy theories and hate speech, in the wake of the El Paso shooting.

As the two-year anniversary of the deadly 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville approaches, civil rights and digital activists say Twitter has not done nearly enough to prevent white nationalists from spreading hate speech online. Twitter is facing increased pressure to take action following the mass shooting in El Paso, where the shooter—who appeared to embrace white nationalism—killed 22 people and injured dozens more.

The Trump administration's policy toward big tech moved in two opposite directions recently, as the White House sought the big platforms' help in predicting mass shootings while it was also reportedly drafting plans to punish them for perceived bias. On Aug 9, the administration invoked the help of Google, Facebook and other companies to detect and deter mass shooters before they act. Meanwhile, the White House has circulated a draft of a new executive order aimed at imposing new restrictions on tech platforms' freedom to moderate the content users contribute.