Platforms such as Google, Facebook and Uber have grown significantly over the past decade due to multiple phenomenon, including network effects. The bigger platforms become, the more they will expand globally and thus the more they will be faced by calls for regulation. Recent news has called upon this request for regulation, especially for Facebook and Uber. Should large platforms be regulated or have they simply become too big to be regulated?
If we look at Uber, the platforms tends to create a love-hate relationships with cities. One the one hand, they are able to provide citizens with transport all over the city, whilst on the other hand its legitimacy regarding local regulations and national employment laws can be questioned. This is the main reason why London does not want to extend Ubers’ license to operate in the city. (Herrman, 2017) Furthermore, after disclosed information has been published on Facebook, as well as Google and Twitter, it has been found out that Russian accounts have interfered with the 2016 presidential election through its advertising network. (Bergen et. al., 2017) Although the three firms have already made clear that they are looking into the problem, the question whether regulatory practices should be implemented remains. Imposing regulatory boundaries on platforms such as Facebook and Uber means the firms would have to restructure their digital strategies as well analyze whether or not it would have an impact on its business structure.
Although I have a mixed opinion on this topic, I will discuss my main concerns. This is a delicate topic given that platforms such as Google and Facebook were able to grow in such scale given that they were faced with almost no government constraints, yet now the question about regulation is being after Facebook and Uber have become so big. Although I believe in certain freedom across platforms, I don’t believe that large platforms such as Facebook should in fact be completely free of government regulations. A lot of people can publish anything they want, whether they have good or bad intentions, without any social constraints. Only the best regulatory implementations would be able to encourage positive behavior as well as stop negative behavior. However, if we speak about regulating such large platforms it needs to be questioned whether enforcing regulations on platforms is in fact feasible. On the other hand, Facebook was created with the intention of connecting people from all around the world through means of private communication. This would mean that by imposing strict regulations, the government would get involved in these private conversations. Instead of regulations, platforms such as Facebook could simply use algorithms to prevent the appearance of ‘Fake news’.
Would Facebook therefore need to be regulated in order to protect the democratic process or should it be regulated as little as possible in order to protect the democratic process? The answer to this question would affect huge platforms either way.
References:
Herrman J, 2017, ‘What if platforms like Facebook are too big to regulate?’, NY Times, Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/04/magazine/what-if-platforms-like-facebook-are-too-big-to-regulate.html [16 October 2017]
Bergen M., Frier S., and Bloomberg S., 2017, ‘Are Google, Facebook and Twitter too big?’, The Hamilton Spectator, Available at: https://www.thespec.com/news-story/7605696-are-google-facebook-and-twitter-too-big-/ [16 Ocober 2017]
Interesting post! Your blog post made question whether or not it is indeed feasible for governments to successfully impose strict regulations on websites such as Facebook. Because while new regulations may be set, whether or not this effectively reaches the goal of reducing things such as fake news is still the question. I believe that the company who owns the platform will be more successful in reducing fake news, as companies like Facebook and Google are more likely to have the sophisticated technology needed to create algorithms that filter out harmful posts to users. For this to happen, however, these companies will have to rethink their goals and strategy to ensure that these goals include user safety and reduction of fake news. When companies thus impose regulations of their own, this might also reduce the need for governments to impose regulations as well.