Holding Big Tech Accountable
By Sen. John Thune
I was recently part of a Senate panel that held several of the nation’s top big tech leaders accountable for the content moderation practices at each of their respective companies. The American people deserve to know how their information is being used, censored, and potentially exploited online. These companies have an obligation to explain it.
I questioned Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, and Google CEO Sundar Pichai about the perceived political bias that exists within the big tech community and how that might affect their companies’ actions when it comes to suppressing or amplifying certain online content. I pressed them on whether or not they believed they were legitimate referees when it comes to political speech on social media platforms. In my opinion, it’s not up to them to make those kinds of decisions, especially when it can have an effect on our democracy.
If you were an early adopter of social media, you’ve seen online platforms come, go, and evolve over the years. At their outset, platforms were comprised of a simple, sequential stream of user-generated content – pictures of your lunch or dinner, a status update on your weekend plans, or an article about a hot new restaurant opening downtown. In many cases, a dial-up internet connection and desktop computer were an integral part of logging on, scrolling, and posting.
Fast forward to today. Things have changed a bit, to say the least. Now you can access social media from nearly every corner of the planet (even from outer space) and from nearly any device with an internet connection: phones, tablets, watches, TVs, computers, and so on. And with the advancement of 5G wireless broadband technology, something I’ve fought hard for in Congress, you can access information faster than ever before.
Access and availability aren’t the only things that have changed. Big tech leaders like Zuckerberg, Dorsey, and Pichai are now some of the most powerful people in the world because they, in many ways, shape and control the content that social media users see and consume online. They’ve developed high-powered, opaque algorithms – contained within a black box of sorts – that learn online behavior and deliver customized results based on what we search, see, and share online. How they do it is largely unknown, which is one of the reasons why they recently testified before Congress.
Some platforms have gone a step further – beyond delivering customized results and content – and have appeared to act as the arbiters of truth by moderating and censoring user-generated political content – political speech, essentially. Whether or not these companies believe they’re acting as a referee, suppression of people’s political speech is occurring. This kind of behavior is not what Congress envisioned when it crafted certain laws during the infancy of the internet, like when it created a liability shield that helped these companies grow. So, as social media platforms continue to evolve, so too must the laws that govern them.
As the former chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and the current chairman of the Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, Innovation, and the Internet, this issue is very important to me. I’ve held multiple hearings on this topic over the years and have introduced several bipartisan pieces of legislation that would help strengthen online transparency and accountability.
In June, I introduced the bipartisan Platform Accountability and Consumer Transparency Act, or PACT Act. It would require internet platforms like Facebook and Twitter to make quarterly reports to the public outlining material they’ve removed from their sites or chosen to deemphasize. Sites would also be required to provide an easily digestible disclosure of their content moderation practices for users. And, importantly, they would be required to explain their decisions to remove material to consumers. They would need to create an appeals process for users, too.
There’s a growing bipartisan consensus that it’s time to shed greater light on these secretive processes. I will continue to be a tireless advocate for the American people who, again, deserve to know how their information is being treated by big tech. This hearing is not the last you’ve heard from Congress on this issue. In many ways, we’re just getting started.
###
As a Conservative Republican I am very disappointed in both Thune and Rounds and their “do nothing’ against Big Tech as they have been censoring Conservatives for years. I am tired of these politicians “questioning them’! At what point and time are you going to actually do something instead of paying us lip service. The whole Senate Leadership does nothing but talk. Lindsay Graham has said for 2+ years he is getting to the bottom of Russiagate yet ZERO. This is truly why so many of us jumped on the Trump Train. President Trump has tons of flaws and we all know it but, he has balls and doesn’t back down. He is the only politician who has not recoiled every time the whining Liberal media went after them. Step up Thune, our country is literally on the line here, no more talk, just do it
I agree. So much talk, talk, talk and yet here we are with no changes. How long has Thune been in politics now? 20+yrs?
Is it true he doesn’t even acknowledge voter fraud exists?
I hear Jim Jordan is writing a harshly worded letter
That’s hilarious!!! I love the sense of humor but, man these people have ZERO stones. The sad thing is, if they would just stand up WE WOULD BACK THEM!!!. We backed a loud mouthed, self absorbed, Ego driven Real Estate Mogul all the way to the white house. We did it because he called a spade a spade and didn’t mince words. Regular people resonate with this and we are tired off all the tough talk and no action. The Republican and Democrat parties have been broken for 30+ years and BOTH have sold us out to Foreign interests and the wealthy elite. These parties are both different sides of the the Coin, its a big club and we aren’t in it. This is why you see Liberals turn to Bernie Sanders and Conservatives turned to Donald Trump, people all across the US are ticked off at the same crap from these 2 parties. Its amazing how so many go to Congress/Senate making 170k a year yet come out Millionaires. I want to see all their tax returns and not the Presidents, he made his money as a private citizen, you crooks made it by selling us out.
“They’re not after me… They’re after you, I’m just in their way.” -Donald J. Trump.
Ya…sure senator. We will believe it when we see it.
In 1984 while working with for Senator Abdnor, I was involved in some bank reforms giving them additional powers (in particular selling certain insurance products among other things) mostly to insure these products were available locally in smaller communities via community banks. But, those of us involved, after passage feared a “next step.”
That next step came a the end of Bill Clinton’s administration (spearheaded in Congress by Republican Senator Gram) was the end of Glas-Steagall which led to the financial meltdown of 2008-2009. Unfortunately, instead of going back to Glas-Steagall, the “solution” was Dodd-Frank which did nothing to resolve the problem and only had the effect of making big banks bigger and Wall Street the most powerful special interest in Washington and financiers of the “Swamp.”
Why do I tell you this story?
Our true existential threats to our freedom are:
1). Big Banks
2). Big Tech
3). The Neo-cons foreign policy of intervention, policing, and ultimately the Military Industrial Complex’s endless wars.
Senator Graham said the other day if we don’t pursue election fraud we’ll never elect a Republican as President again. My view is if we dont break up the Big Banks, Big Tech, and stay the non-Neo-Con foreign policy, election fraud will not be our biggest problem.
Though I agree with Troy on the break up, I don’t think we will ever see that happen. Take Big Tech, there is a nation of people who are so lazy they accept the advancement of technology (5G) with open arms. Why learn to read when Siri will read to you? Why go shopping when you can have items delivered to your front door?
Why is there such a push for 5G (Big Tech)? It’s the only digital platform strong enough for AI. What’s AI capable of? Monitoring everything we do. If the economy was to crash, digital currency could be easily implemented (Big Banks) which is a part of that monitoring. 5G is sourced in China. Through this tech China is able to watch everything the citizens do, and to control the people China created a social score for everyone. If a Chinese citizen has too low of a social score, they loose privileges such as traveling by train or airplane. Is this possible in America? With Big Tech, Big Banks and weak leaders, absolutely.
Unfortunately, there are too many Americans who are not aware and too lazy to care what the future may hold with Big Bank & Big Tech in control. Without a break up could we see The United States of America slowly turn into The United States of China? With flippy-floppy Biden, it may come to fruition sooner than later.