DailyPost 711
UNREGULATED RESPONSIBLE ACCOUNTABILITY
Might be this term, jargon or phrase comes into vogue today, yet we would have felt, understood, experienced or practiced it in some form or the other. Devoid of any regulation, an industry or a professional community, professionally and commercially conducts itself in the best interest of of the society and the economy. It’s not a mercenary, directly or indirectly, working against the interests of fair play, market forces, due diligence & rule of law. Lots of industries claimed to so based on conscience but failed in the face of huge monetary gain. Today, we have the law, policy and regulatory authority for nearly everything.
While IT industry started getting regulated since a decade or so, the operations of the social media companies still remains broadly unregulated. Facebook & Cambridge Analytica saga brought it out in the open. The stark reality turned out of completely contrary to their claims of unregulated responsible accountability. Actually, false pronouncements & packaging was used as a cover for creation &utilisation of data way beyond democratic parameters. Today top social media companies control data & information way beyond electronic or print media can even imagine of. It’s harvesting & manipulation have of late brought them into global disrepute.
US Attorney General has expressed a “growing concern” that social media companies may be ” intentionally stifling the free exchange of idea” on their platforms, has been confirmed. A public declaration of doubt. This comes back to back of Donald Trump’s tweets where he claimed that Google’s news service was “rigged” against him. Though Google has denied being politically biased, nonetheless, White House said it was “taking a look” at whether, and how, Google should be regulated by the govt.
A research of Pew Research Center says that, “75% think it’s likely that social media companies intentionally sensor political viewpoints they find objectionable.” If it is really happening then this nature of clout & audacity the world has never suffered. Whichever way the story goes, from today’s crossroads, the only possible direction can be more regulation. How much and when is the only question.
ABSOLUTE CONTROL OF DATA CORRUPTS ABSOLUTELY.
Sanjay Sahay