[Lee Byung-jong] Massive tech vs. nation-states

Elon Musk is likely to be one of many richest and most influential folks on this planet, however he’s not untouchable. In Brazil, he not too long ago needed to give in to a court docket order to take away far-right extremists’ accounts from X, the {powerful} social media platform he owns and runs. Having defied the court docket order for months within the identify of free speech, Musk needed to give up lastly because the court docket blocked the location for 20 million Brazilian customers. This case exhibits how nation-states might rein within the seemingly invincible social networks and different large tech firms that may transmit faux information and hate speech. It might give some perception into the South Korean authorities which can also be waging numerous battles in opposition to tech giants based mostly abroad.

Abroad-based tech giants like Meta, Google, Apple, X, Netflix or Amazon have develop into so {powerful} and dominant that some nation-states have issue controlling and curbing their affect. Along with generally transmitting misinformation or disinformation, they’ve been accused of disrupting industries and commerce by way of monopolies and different unfair enterprise practices. Their algorithms are designed in order that customers can develop into hooked on their content material and develop into captive targets of intensive advertising, bringing the businesses a continuing stream of income. Customers’ personal information will be misused to generate extra income. Within the course of, smaller firms could also be pushed out of the market.

Alarmed by such points, some governments have devised totally different measures to control sure facets of massive tech firms’ actions. I imagine such efforts have to date been futile usually, however extra not too long ago there was some progress, most pronounced in Europe. For instance, the European Union in March imposed a nice of 1.8 billion euros ($2 billion) on Apple for unfair app retailer guidelines beneath its Digital Markets Act. The EU additionally ordered WhatsApp, owned by Meta, to be interoperable with different messaging companies. Google needed to let EU customers select which companies share their information. Within the US, Google needed to pay its customers $700 million in compensation as a part of an antitrust settlement for anti-competitive practices by its app retailer.

Such instances usually concern the market dominance of massive tech firms. However I imagine the instances of X and different main social media platforms are far more severe as they cope with not solely cash but in addition folks’s minds. A variety of critics imagine the falsehoods and extremism unfold by these platforms can undermine the very foundation of democracy. For instance, although X’s coverage states in any other case, the platform usually permits customers to put up manipulated media, misinformation and hate speech, amongst different restricted content material, which may additional divide already polarized societies. The present governments of India and Turkey pressured X to take down many controversial accounts important of their administrations. Brazil’s Supreme Court docket ordered X to take away some far-right accounts questioning previous election outcomes for undermining democracy by way of ultra-conservative viewpoints.

Totally free speech advocates, such forceful measures could seem draconian. In reality, among the many above governments which have taken harsh approaches to regulating X, two present some levels of authoritarianism. For that matter, Musk insists that his battle is for press freedom and in opposition to authorities censorship. After shopping for Twitter for $44 billion and renaming it X in 2022, Musk actually radically decreased the platform’s content material moderation capacity which he considered as pointless censorship. In consequence, X grew to become crowded with extra excessive accounts and posts, main many advertisers to stop. The newest blow to X has been Brazil’s risk to ban it totally.

Amid rising pressures from nation-states, some large tech firms voluntarily reasonable their content material and regulate their enterprise. Just lately, social media big Instagram introduced new guidelines limiting use by teenagers within the US and elsewhere to mitigate the favored social community’s dangerous results on them. In consequence, accounts of these beneath 18 will likely be personal by default. Non-public messages are restricted in order that teenagers can solely obtain them from folks they comply with or are already related to. The brand new measures additionally permit mother and father to restrict the time teenagers spend on Instagram, requiring them to get parental permission to make use of the location longer.

I imagine such voluntary self-regulation measures are nonetheless inadequate to deal with the issues large tech firms may cause. For instance, younger Instagram customers might theoretically lie about their ages or would possibly be capable to discover methods to get parental permission with out their mother and father’ data. However self-regulation measures are far more ideally suited than forceful authorities actions, significantly in open democratic societies. As big tech firms progressively transfer to super-powerful synthetic intelligence, it could develop into much more troublesome for governments to control them.

The battle between large tech firms and nation-states shows a novel side in South Korea. In comparison with another international locations, Korea has been much less disrupted by multinational large tech firms based mostly abroad because it has nurtured its personal tech giants, reminiscent of Naver and Kakao. It’s one among few international locations on this planet that aren’t dominated by overseas-based large tech. However issues are altering quickly. Abroad-based large tech firms are increasing their companies within the home market at a speedy velocity. Naver, the biggest home search engine, was not too long ago outranked by YouTube as the preferred platform in Korea. Google and Apple have been accused of exploiting native content material builders and customers by charging excessive charges for utilizing their app shops. As authorized instances are nonetheless ongoing, such charges are nonetheless being charged even after the Korean authorities enacted a regulation in opposition to the follow in 2021 for the primary time on this planet.

A part of the issue comes from Seoul’s lackluster implementation of laws and legal guidelines on fears that they will damage native tech firms as nicely. I imagine that lax coverage has price native customers and content material builders dearly. It’s time for Korea to hitch these different governments in reining in large tech.

Lee Byung-jong

Lee Byung-jong is a former Seoul correspondent for Newsweek, The Related Press and Bloomberg Information. He’s a professor within the Faculty of World Service at Sookmyung Ladies’s College in Seoul. The views expressed listed below are the author’s personal. — Ed.