Big Tech made the social media mess. It has to
fix it
Analysis by David Goldman, CNN Business
Social media has given people a platform to spew hate
speech and radical beliefs to other people, amplifying what
are otherwise fringe opinions. A few have turned that hate
into violence.
Silicon Valley has built the biggest, most powerful companies
in the world. Now, tech leaders have a responsibility to rein
in the creations that have grown too unwieldy for them to
control.
These are businesses, and their leaders will have to And
out how to do that without destroying their companies. So
far, balancing Big Tech's responsibilities to society and its
duties to investors has proven difficult.
A difficult balance
Facebook (FB) announced in July it would invest billions
of dollars a year to improve safety and security on the
platform. The company said the effort would come at the
expense of user growth and profitability. The company's
stock lost about a third of its value because investors were
concerned about Facebook's growth stalling.
Twitter has largely rid ISIS recruiters from the social
network. Facebook and YouTube have labeled fake
news stories as such. Yet, the work isn't close to done.
Google has also made significant changes to YouTube's
advertising policies after ads from 300 companies and
organizations ran on channels promoting hate groups.
"YouTube has strict policies that prohibit content which
incites others to violence or promotes hatred," a YouTube
spokesperson said. "We quickly remove videos violating
our policies when flagged by our users."
What seemed to cross no one's mind a decade ago was
the potential downside to building a platform with billions
of customers. So many posts can't possibly be monitored
in real time. The networks gave the dregs of society the
ability to reach like-minded people and poison the minds
of others.
Without that foresight, Silicon Valley allowed their
creations to break down. They're not beyond repair,
but fixing them will be costly and difficult. Whether
Big Tech is up to the task will determine the fates of
their platforms.
Available: https://edition.cnn.com/2018/10/29/tech/social-media-
-hate-speech/index.html. Access: 30 may 2019. Adapted.
Glossary: spew: lançar; fringe: periféricas; to rein in: controlar; unwieldy: desordenado; duties: deveres; profitability, lucro;
stock: ação (no mercado); stalling: interrupção; flagged: sinalizados; dregs of society: pessoas inescrupulosas; like-minded: pessoas que compartilham ideias semelhantes; poison: envenenar;
foresight: visão; beyond repair: sem conserto; up to the task: à
altura da tarefa.
The author, David Goldman, suggests that the main
reason behind the difficulty to solve the problem discussed
in the article is
