Regulation: How much do Americans dislike big tech, and what new bill is introduced

And regulation.    Two data points for you today.   New data from YouGov and the Center for Growth and Opportunity says that Americans think big tech is too big and should be regulated, and mostly don’t think the news media is good for US society.  Here are your survey stats:

• 63% of baby boomers polled said the government should regulate social media, while 40% of Generation Z agreed.
• Two-thirds of those polled say Big Tech companies are too big, although less than half said they think the government should break them up.
• 40% people polled said they “completely distrust” Facebook on handling personal data. For Google, that number was 22%; for Amazon, it was 14%; for Microsoft, it was 15%.

Meanwhile, Congress is moving.    Three Democratic senators have introduced the SAFE TECH act.     The major focus, quoting Protocol:
“Online platforms would not be able to claim Section 230 immunity for alleged violations of federal or state civil rights laws, antitrust laws, cyberstalking laws, human rights laws or civil actions regarding a wrongful death. The law would strip companies of immunity for any speech they were paid to carry, such as ads or marketplace listings, and it would make clear that Section 230 does not shield companies from complying with court orders.”

Starting by noting that regulating tech is not unpopular.  Remember that for context!

Those numbers seem dramatic to me.   They also keep going up.  

Lawmakers are getting serious about the space now too, and let’s observe they have the votes to make it happen.    This should  be the year of change.   

My advice here is to not assume technology is trusted anymore.  If you’re not trusting your vendors due to security… your customers may or should not be implicitly trusting you.   Don’t take that as a good or a bad, take that as reality.  It’s quite possible, and in fact optimal, to work in an environment of DIS trust rather than implicit trust.    
Remember your teachers asking you to show your work?  It’s that, on a business scale.    Transparency will be a piece of the answer.   If you show your work, you don’t have to assume trust, and instead can just function.  

Source: Axios

Source: Protocol