It wasnt all that long ago, certainly within most of our lifetimes, that digital technology seemed to be the answer to all our problems. Pick up virtually any book about the promise of tech published in the 1990s, and even into the early 2000s, and it was presented as almost inarguable that the democratizing effects of the digital revolution would bring a slew of benefits to civilization as we know it.
Today, that premise seems on far shakier ground. While there are plenty of reasons to still get excited about tech, theres no shortage of reasons to worry. In his brilliant new book The Digital Republic: On Freedom and Democracy in the 21st Century, barrister and author Jamie Susskind questions how freedom and democracy can survive in a world full of all-powerful digital technologies.
Digital Trends: Whats the central argument that youre making in The Digital Republic?
Jamie Susskind: The central argument is that we have a problem with the tech industry. That problem is not with individual bad apples at the top or particular corporations. Its the problem of unaccountable power, through a lack of proper governance.
My book tries to diagnose where that power comes from, why its a problem, and how we can make it more accountable in a way that preserves freedom and democracy.
DT: Explain what you mean by the republicanism referred to in the book title.
JS: Its drawing on the ancient republican philosophy that stretches back to the Romans. This isnt the republicanism of the modern Republican Party, nor of those who want to get rid of the monarchy in, for instance, the United Kingdom. Republicanism is a philosophy which holds that the purpose of law and politics is to reduce unaccountable power in society. For example, a republican would argue against the idea of kings, not just against a particular bad king. They wouldnt hope for better bosses; theyd argue for employment rights. They wouldnt complain about unpleasant slave owners; theyd fight for the abolition of slavery.
Applied to the digital context, digital republicanism says that its inherently problematic for an enormous amount of power to be concentrated in the hands of those who own and control digital technologies. Thats the case even if we happen to agree with how they exercise that power from time to time.
DT: Tech companies frequently face critiques, at times from both sides of the political aisle, about becoming political in some sense. But is there any way that they could have avoided this? It seems inevitable. Even the broad idea of a computer interface is, in a sense, ideological because it structures how we perceive the world. Add in the mission statement and scale of search engines and it appears that this problem was always going to arise.
JS: I think so. The central argument of my book is that digital technologies exert power whether or not its conscious or desired on the part of their creators. All technologies contain rules that we have to follow when we interact with them. The rules of Twitter state that you cannot post a tweet if its more than a certain length. The rules of a self-driving car may state that they wont drive over a particular speed limit, even in the case of an emergency.
As more and more of our actions and interactions and transactions are mediated through technology, those who write the rules are increasingly writing the rules of society. You may consider yourself to be an entrepreneur or an engineer or a tech executive or whatever, but youre still performing a political function in society that should, in my view, be held accountable accordingly.
DT: Whats the answer to that? Engineers and executives most likely arent elected politicians. Should they try their best to aim for a stance of impartiality or neutrality?
JS: Theres no such thing as a neutral posture that can be adopted. Thats because neutrality itself is a choice between alternatives. For instance, if youre neutral about the content that is posted on your social media platform that might mean being neutral about hate speech, or rape threats, or child pornography. Another example involves Googles autofill suggestions. Google used to have a problem with its autofill responses coming back with unpleasant suggestions so if you typed in, Why do Jews, it would come back with have big noses or own the media. Googles defense for that was that it was neutral because it reflected the queries that had been made by people in the past.
To me, thats a good example of when neutrality is the same as injustice. Instead of changing or helping reduce the amount of discrimination in the world, Google amplified and enlarged it. As the Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel used to say, neutrality favors the oppressor. There is no neutral posture that digital technology owners and controllers can take. I think we just have to accept that there are always going to be decisions that involve priorities and trade-offs and principles and, sometimes, prejudices.
The real question is how do we manage and govern those? We should govern them in the same way that we govern other unelected people in society who hold positions of social responsibility, be they doctors, lawyers, bankers, teachers, broadcasters. These are all industries in which people have unique positions of social responsibility, and the law imposes certain duties on them as a result.
DT: The question of neutrality has recently been raised with a lot of the discourse surrounding Twitter and the seemingly now-aborted Elon Musk takeover. Some have suggested that platforms such as Twitter have a bias and that some of the problems of social media could be solved if they acted less.
JS: One of the long-standing themes of republican political thought is that if you adopt a position of neutrality or of abstention in the social and political fray, what youre actually doing is creating space for the strong to dominate the weak. A social media platform in which there are no rules doesnt give everyone equal rights to participate. It means that certain voices are going to be drowned out, certain people are going to be hounded off the platform. In the real world, the state sometimes intervenes in the lives of the people within a polity in order to rebalance power imbalances. Tech should be no different.
DT: There seems to be a real wave of tech skepticism at present, certainly when you compare it to, for instance, the cyber utopianism of the 1990s when there was the sense of a Californian ideology that could solve all our problems. Can you pinpoint when things changed?
JS: I think its quite clear that it happened in 2016. That year, the Remain side lost the Brexit referendum, and the Hillary Clinton campaign lost the electoral college in the United States. In both of those campaigns, claims were made by the losing side and on behalf of the losing side that the winning side had illicitly weaponized digital technologies.
Whether it was through micro-targeting or the harvesting of peoples data, some of those claims have withstood scrutiny in the subsequent years, while others have not. But regardless of their merit, I do regard that as a turning point. That year, the question of the power of digital technology shot right to the top of the political agenda. It has also exploded as an academic concern.
DT: What steps can we, as individuals, take to address some of the problems you outline in the book?
JS: Very few, Im afraid. And its important to be honest about that. We need to get out of the mindset that if only we were a bit more tech-savvy, we may be able to better protect ourselves and our children. I believe thats nonsense. I think that the challenges posed by digital technology can only in the main be fixed at the collective level. That means through the mechanism of law. It shouldnt be left to individuals.
DT: So what would this kind of collective action or regulatory action look like?
JS: It differs from industry to industry; technology to technology. But in the book, I lay out a number of possibilities. Firstly, I think that powerful individuals in the tech sector should have their conduct regulated in a way analogous to the way that doctors and lawyers and pharmacists have theirs regulated.
Secondly, I think we need a broader conception of antitrust than the one we currently have, which is currently focused narrowly on economic concerns. I think when we are assessing whether a particular merger or acquisition is good for society, we shouldnt just be taking price into account; we should be taking things like media diversity and the concentration of political and social power into account.
Thirdly, I would like to see ways that individuals and regulators can contest important exercises of digital power, whether thats ways of contesting algorithms that are distributing mortgages or jobs or housing or loans. Its a reasonably comprehensive legal regime that I outline in the book. Underpinning all of it is a new mechanism for involving the people in decisions about digital technology. Its not just a matter of shifting power from tech companies to parliament, but also from parliament back to the people.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Originally posted here:
The world needs a better way to regulate Big Techs unchecked power - Digital Trends
- We're losing the war against surveillance capitalism because we let Big Tech frame the debate - Salon [Last Updated On: June 24th, 2020] [Originally Added On: June 24th, 2020]
- Barr: Changes To Big Tech Protections Are Meant To Protect Free Speech - The Federalist [Last Updated On: June 24th, 2020] [Originally Added On: June 24th, 2020]
- Antifa, Big Tech and abortion: Republicans bring culture war to police brutality debate - POLITICO [Last Updated On: June 24th, 2020] [Originally Added On: June 24th, 2020]
- Big Tech Wont Be the Same If Everyone Works From Home - Yahoo Finance [Last Updated On: June 24th, 2020] [Originally Added On: June 24th, 2020]
- Big Tech will annihilate Telcos (a weekend read!) | Gadget Guy Australia - GadgetGuy [Last Updated On: June 24th, 2020] [Originally Added On: June 24th, 2020]
- Tesla Is Overvalued: Investors Are Treating It Too Much Like A Tech Company, Says Morgan Stanley - Forbes [Last Updated On: June 24th, 2020] [Originally Added On: June 24th, 2020]
- Apple's app store is suddenly a flashpoint in the Big Tech debate - NBC News [Last Updated On: June 24th, 2020] [Originally Added On: June 24th, 2020]
- Fox News Host Tucker Carlson Blasts Alleged Big Tech Censorship: By Offensive, They Mean The Left Doesnt Like It - Deadline [Last Updated On: June 24th, 2020] [Originally Added On: June 24th, 2020]
- The unholy alliance of big government and Big Tech - Washington Examiner [Last Updated On: June 24th, 2020] [Originally Added On: June 24th, 2020]
- Ben Domenech: Small Groups Have Power To Weaponize Big Tech Against People They Don't Like - The Federalist [Last Updated On: June 24th, 2020] [Originally Added On: June 24th, 2020]
- Big Tech Is Using the Pandemic to Push Dangerous New Forms of Surveillance - Truthout [Last Updated On: June 24th, 2020] [Originally Added On: June 24th, 2020]
- Big Tech Zeros In on the Virus-Testing Market - The New York Times [Last Updated On: June 24th, 2020] [Originally Added On: June 24th, 2020]
- What the 1930s can teach us about dealing with Big Tech today - MIT Technology Review [Last Updated On: June 24th, 2020] [Originally Added On: June 24th, 2020]
- Foreign Interference Persists And Techniques Are Evolving, Big Tech Tells Hill - NPR [Last Updated On: June 24th, 2020] [Originally Added On: June 24th, 2020]
- Big Tech's Opposition to Section 101 Reform: Policy Rhetoric versus Economic Reality - IPWatchdog.com [Last Updated On: June 24th, 2020] [Originally Added On: June 24th, 2020]
- Former Facebook exec thinks big tech will get broken up over the next 10 years - TechCrunch [Last Updated On: June 24th, 2020] [Originally Added On: June 24th, 2020]
- Here's what happened to the stock market on Tuesday - CNBC [Last Updated On: June 24th, 2020] [Originally Added On: June 24th, 2020]
- The Tech Billionaire Marshaling the Fight Against Big Tech - The Information [Last Updated On: June 24th, 2020] [Originally Added On: June 24th, 2020]
- Biased Big Tech algorithms limit our lives and choices. Stop the online discrimination. - USA TODAY [Last Updated On: July 31st, 2020] [Originally Added On: July 31st, 2020]
- Big Tech Earnings This Week: Facebook, Amazon, and Alphabet - Motley Fool [Last Updated On: July 31st, 2020] [Originally Added On: July 31st, 2020]
- Big Tech antitrust hearing could be colossal or mere theater - Roll Call [Last Updated On: July 31st, 2020] [Originally Added On: July 31st, 2020]
- 'Advertising,' 'Data' And 'Targeting' Loom Large During Big Tech Hearings 07/30/2020 - MediaPost Communications [Last Updated On: July 31st, 2020] [Originally Added On: July 31st, 2020]
- Stop with the egg metaphor in discussing Big Tech break-ups | TheHill - The Hill [Last Updated On: July 31st, 2020] [Originally Added On: July 31st, 2020]
- Sen. Hawley introduces bill to remove Big Tech's Section 230 ad immunity - Fox Business [Last Updated On: July 31st, 2020] [Originally Added On: July 31st, 2020]
- All Eyes on Big Tech Earnings: Here's What to Expect - Yahoo Finance [Last Updated On: July 31st, 2020] [Originally Added On: July 31st, 2020]
- We like and value Big Tech, so why are we so determined to do it down? - Telegraph.co.uk [Last Updated On: July 31st, 2020] [Originally Added On: July 31st, 2020]
- What to watch today: Dow to open higher ahead of Big Tech hearing and Fed policy decision - CNBC [Last Updated On: July 31st, 2020] [Originally Added On: July 31st, 2020]
- Big tech companies continue to expand in Seattle - KING5.com [Last Updated On: July 31st, 2020] [Originally Added On: July 31st, 2020]
- When it comes to big tech, US government official incompetence is embarrassing and horrifying - AppleInsider [Last Updated On: July 31st, 2020] [Originally Added On: July 31st, 2020]
- Are the Big Tech companies breaking antitrust rules? Their CEOs testify before Congress. - Marketplace [Last Updated On: July 31st, 2020] [Originally Added On: July 31st, 2020]
- Lawmakers argue that big tech stands to benefit from the pandemic and must be regulated - TechCrunch [Last Updated On: July 31st, 2020] [Originally Added On: July 31st, 2020]
- Lawmakers keen to break up 'big tech' like Amazon and Google need to realize the world has changed a lot since Microsoft and Standard Oil - The... [Last Updated On: July 31st, 2020] [Originally Added On: July 31st, 2020]
- Busting Up Big Tech is Popular, But Here's what the US May Lose - Defense One [Last Updated On: July 31st, 2020] [Originally Added On: July 31st, 2020]
- Antitrust Showdown In Congress: Big Tech, Meet Big Government - Forbes [Last Updated On: July 31st, 2020] [Originally Added On: July 31st, 2020]
- Law Decoded: Big Tech, Central Banks and the Hunt for Monopolies, July 24-31 - Cointelegraph [Last Updated On: July 31st, 2020] [Originally Added On: July 31st, 2020]
- For Big Tech, There's No Winning This Round - WIRED [Last Updated On: July 31st, 2020] [Originally Added On: July 31st, 2020]
- As Tech Giants Face Congress, Heres What Americans Actually Think Of Big Tech - Forbes [Last Updated On: July 31st, 2020] [Originally Added On: July 31st, 2020]
- Is This the Beginning of the End of Big Tech As We Know It? - New York Magazine [Last Updated On: July 31st, 2020] [Originally Added On: July 31st, 2020]
- Big Tech and antitrust: Pay attention to the math behind the curtain - Brookings Institution [Last Updated On: July 31st, 2020] [Originally Added On: July 31st, 2020]
- Big Techs Backlash Is Just Starting - The New York Times [Last Updated On: July 31st, 2020] [Originally Added On: July 31st, 2020]
- Factbox: Where do Trump and Biden stand on tech policy issues? - Yahoo Finance [Last Updated On: September 15th, 2020] [Originally Added On: September 15th, 2020]
- Larry Berman: Should you buy the dip in big tech names? - BNN [Last Updated On: September 15th, 2020] [Originally Added On: September 15th, 2020]
- The trailer for big tech documentary The Social Dilemma hooked viewers this week - YouGov US [Last Updated On: September 15th, 2020] [Originally Added On: September 15th, 2020]
- Big Banking Tech Rules that Solidify Trust in Transparency - AiThority [Last Updated On: September 15th, 2020] [Originally Added On: September 15th, 2020]
- As Big Tech reinvented the game, we must rewrite the rules - London Business School Review [Last Updated On: September 15th, 2020] [Originally Added On: September 15th, 2020]
- IAB Tech Lab's Project Rearc Chugs Along On Open Standards, But The Browser Makers Are Wildcards - AdExchanger [Last Updated On: September 15th, 2020] [Originally Added On: September 15th, 2020]
- IPOs have gone red hot in 2020: Here are 7 big names to watch - Bankrate.com [Last Updated On: September 15th, 2020] [Originally Added On: September 15th, 2020]
- When Tech Giants Want to Play Banker - The Regulatory Review [Last Updated On: September 15th, 2020] [Originally Added On: September 15th, 2020]
- Big Tech wants a bigger pie in India, but it just can't seem to bypass Mukesh Ambani - Economic Times [Last Updated On: September 15th, 2020] [Originally Added On: September 15th, 2020]
- The six biggest tech stocks have lost more than $1 trillion in value in three days - CNBC [Last Updated On: September 15th, 2020] [Originally Added On: September 15th, 2020]
- Why big tech stocks can weather the storm - Financial Times [Last Updated On: September 15th, 2020] [Originally Added On: September 15th, 2020]
- Feds can't scapegoat Google and Big Tech as anti-trust targets forever - New York Post [Last Updated On: September 15th, 2020] [Originally Added On: September 15th, 2020]
- A top Washington analyst weighs the risks of antitrust actions against Big Tech - CNBC [Last Updated On: September 15th, 2020] [Originally Added On: September 15th, 2020]
- Big Tech is turning on one another amid antitrust probes and litigation - MarketWatch [Last Updated On: September 15th, 2020] [Originally Added On: September 15th, 2020]
- Big Tech Still Loves The Oil Business - OilPrice.com [Last Updated On: September 15th, 2020] [Originally Added On: September 15th, 2020]
- Interview: Barry Lynn on the Fight Against Monopolies and Big Tech - RAIN Magazine [Last Updated On: September 15th, 2020] [Originally Added On: September 15th, 2020]
- Over 60% of Insurtech Firms are Now Interested in Working with BigTech Companies: Report - Crowdfund Insider [Last Updated On: September 18th, 2020] [Originally Added On: September 18th, 2020]
- Wray Touts Disinformation Strategy With Big Tech: Often-And-Early : Live Updates: House Hearing On Homeland Threats - NPR [Last Updated On: September 18th, 2020] [Originally Added On: September 18th, 2020]
- Australias News Media and Digital Platforms Bargaining Code is Great Politics But Questionable Economics - ProMarket [Last Updated On: September 21st, 2020] [Originally Added On: September 21st, 2020]
- SUCCESS INSIDER: What people in the C-suites of Apple, Facebook, Disney, and 90 other big tech and media compa - Business Insider India [Last Updated On: September 21st, 2020] [Originally Added On: September 21st, 2020]
- Pandemic prompts more insurers to collaborate with Big Tech - International - Insurance News [Last Updated On: September 21st, 2020] [Originally Added On: September 21st, 2020]
- Goldman Sachs Partner Has a Warning on Big Tech Stocks - ThinkAdvisor [Last Updated On: September 21st, 2020] [Originally Added On: September 21st, 2020]
- Longhorns coach Tom Herman on the Big 12 opener against Texas Tech - KXAN.com [Last Updated On: September 21st, 2020] [Originally Added On: September 21st, 2020]
- Stock sell-off accelerates and is expected to get worse before it gets better - CNBC [Last Updated On: September 21st, 2020] [Originally Added On: September 21st, 2020]
- How The Turmoil With TikTok Could Change The Course Of Big Tech - BusinessBecause [Last Updated On: September 21st, 2020] [Originally Added On: September 21st, 2020]
- Gen Z Says They're Eager to Use a Big Tech for Banking But Will They? - The Financial Brand [Last Updated On: September 21st, 2020] [Originally Added On: September 21st, 2020]
- BARCLAYS: Tech stocks priced at dot-com bubble levels are at serious risk of bursting. Here's why the next meltdown will be far less severe than in... [Last Updated On: September 21st, 2020] [Originally Added On: September 21st, 2020]
- Big Comeback For Apple, Netflix, And Other Big Tech Names Softens Some Of The Pain - Benzinga [Last Updated On: September 21st, 2020] [Originally Added On: September 21st, 2020]
- Conservative group launches website to battle big tech companies over online censorship - Fox News [Last Updated On: September 21st, 2020] [Originally Added On: September 21st, 2020]
- Section 230 will be on the chopping block at the next big tech hearing - TechCrunch [Last Updated On: October 7th, 2020] [Originally Added On: October 7th, 2020]
- Amazon and Big Tech cozy up to Biden camp with cash and connections - NBC News [Last Updated On: October 7th, 2020] [Originally Added On: October 7th, 2020]
- Big Tech, Beware: New Bill Aims to Expand Antitrust Laws to Large Businesses Doing Business in New York - JD Supra [Last Updated On: October 7th, 2020] [Originally Added On: October 7th, 2020]
- News Corp. changes its tune on Big Tech - Axios [Last Updated On: October 7th, 2020] [Originally Added On: October 7th, 2020]
- Big Tech: Between a rock and a hard place - Yahoo News [Last Updated On: October 7th, 2020] [Originally Added On: October 7th, 2020]
- Big Tech, Out-of-Control Capitalism and the End of Civilization - Scientific American [Last Updated On: October 7th, 2020] [Originally Added On: October 7th, 2020]
- US House of Representatives to recommend break up of Big ... [Last Updated On: October 7th, 2020] [Originally Added On: October 7th, 2020]
- Big Tech Was Their Enemy, Until Partisanship Fractured the ... [Last Updated On: October 7th, 2020] [Originally Added On: October 7th, 2020]
- Beware the Regulatory Crackdown on Big Tech - National Review [Last Updated On: October 25th, 2020] [Originally Added On: October 25th, 2020]
- Niall Ferguson: The Costs Big Tech Are Prepared To Incur Will Be Entirely Worth It For Them If The Outcome Is A Landslide Biden Victory - FOX News... [Last Updated On: October 25th, 2020] [Originally Added On: October 25th, 2020]
- More Than Two-Thirds of Big Tech Employees Feeling Burnout At Home - Nextgov [Last Updated On: October 25th, 2020] [Originally Added On: October 25th, 2020]