Big Tech: Between a rock and a hard place

Yesterday saw two huge clues for what Big Tech can expect in the years to come.

In the US, both the Democrats and the Republicans now have a fixed position on regulating tech.

They are both totally different.

First off, Trump.

After the President shared a piece of disinformation on Facebook and Twitter about the relative dangers of Covid, the two companies reacted: Twitter hid his post and Facebook removed it altogether.

Trump responded by tweeting "Repeal Section 230!!!".

This is a key piece of legislation that stops companies like Facebook and Twitter from being liable for the things people post.

It essentially gives them "platform" rather than "publisher" status.

Just imagine for a second if all of the posts on Facebook - all of the accusations, all of the libellous content, all of it - was the responsibility of Mark Zuckerberg.

It doesn't work. Without Section 230 companies like Facebook, Twitter, TikTok etc couldn't function as they do now. They'd potentially have to moderate your content in real time.

Even for the most powerful artificial intelligence systems, that is not possible.

You might think: "Trump says he'll repeal Section 230, but will he actually":[]}