Facebook and Google: Set Up a Standards Entity
January 25, 2018
Ah, governance. A murky word which means figuring out the rules of the road. Tough job.
I read “UK Advertisers urge Facebook and Google to Set Up Standards Body.” The idea is interesting. It reminds me of the hapless part time teacher who was supposed to manage my high school science club. Shortly before one of the wags ignited a smoke bomb in chemistry class, our science club was asked to stop playing pranks. Yep, that notion lasted less than 24 hours.
I think of Facebook, Google, and some other outfits as high school science and math clubs whose DNA is now more mature—just with niftier technology.
The write up ignores what I perceive as the basis of some interesting corporate behavior. I learned from the article:
Advertisers have called on Facebook and Google to establish an independent body to regulate and monitor content on both of their platforms.
Okay, both companies are supposed to generate a return for their shareholders. Both companies are not too keen on people not working in a sufficiently advanced field offering suggestions. This is similar to the concierge of a fancy hotel telling the bank president financing the outfit what to have for breakfast.
The write up opined in a “real” news way:
Google and Facebook should “thrash out some common principles” over content moderation and removal that could be adopted and enforced by an independent body, which they would fund, he [Phil Smith, director general of the Incorporated Society of British Advertiser or ISBA] said.
The write up reported:
Mr Smith, a former marketing director of Kraft, said advertisers expect the big technology companies to take action because consumers are becoming skeptical of digital advertising. “Our consumer research tells us that digital advertising is intrusive and not being trusted,” he said. Consumers “know that television advertising is regulated in some way – both the advertising and the content – but they don’t believe that to be the case in any respect when it comes to digital”.
Yep, great idea.
I believe that regulators are interested in paying more attention to Facebook and Google. I would toss Amazon and Apple into the basket as well.
However, the interest is less about sales and more about tax revenue.
How would a regulatory body go about making a modification to an automated algorithm which reacts to what users do in real time?
Facebook and Google operate in interesting ways; regulatory authorities may not be into the “interesting” thing.
Stephen E Arnold, January 25, 2018
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Facebook and Google: Set Up a Standards Entity : Stephen E. Arnold @ Beyond Search