“When your technology changes the world, your bear a responsibility to help address the world you have helped create.”
Brad Smith, Microsoft former CEO.
This introductory phrase summarizes Brad Smith and Carol Ann Browne 2019 book’s position and arguments regarding to the two most current dimensions of the big technologies: promises and perils, tools and weapons.
The book author is Brad Smith the Microsoft present which makes it a testimony from inside about the brave new world of opportunities , empowerment, communication, virtual violence and unknown risks.
From one side Big Tech can serve as tools that used to make the world better, and from the other side they can be turned into weapons that used to hack privacy, ruin security and fail democracies. When the new digital technologies “the so-called big tech” invaded the world and transformed the life making it more and more online, new challenges and unprecedented questions emerged shedding lights on the new promises and perils of the new technology.
Tools and Weapons tells a story of Microsoft endeavor to work with government and other Big Tech partners to create policies and regulations. Although private sector has that tendency to be suspicion about government intervening in their work and the natural resistance and concern about the government attempts to regulate the business, this is one of the rare moment in history in which the private sector itself that take the initiative and go to the government asking it to intervene and regulate. Smith argues that there are times when its in everyone’s interest for the government to step in and regulate.
The destiny of digital technologies that they are operating in totally new areas that have not been regulated by the government or even considered to be part of legislative system. More challenging is that legislations of the Big Tech is not, and cannot be, the responsibility of one country or one government, for many reasons; a) digital technologies has no boundaries, Facebook is a USA-based firm , however, its influence and users are all over the continent; b) with this wide range of political system and legislative principles the vary from country to county is it possible to come together and agree on international regulations for the big tech operation ( especially social media)? Is is possible that a democratic regime like Sweden and a totalitarian regime like China can agree on the same principle to regulate freedom of speech and content gatekeeping on the social media platforms?
The focus is on the threats of technologies on our privacy, safety, democracy, ethics, work, cyber security and human rights. It offers an excellent encapsulation on the economic, political and social ramifications of the new tools. However, we need also to focus on the threats of big technologies on development , participation and social movements.
The story of Edward Snowden is one of the eye-opening events that draw the world attention into the new possibilities of technologies to establish a massive surveillance system that is spying not only on people’s movements but even on their thoughts, feelings , health status, hobbies and fantasies.
In terms of big technologies for development, we face the same dilemma. Big data and big technology can provide extremely effective tools to increase participation, information sharing and sharing the voices of the voiceless. From the other hand, the same big technology can also be used as a weapon to hack democracy spread fake news and hijack public opinions thorough controlling the content through fake accounts, algorithms and “electronic armies”.
Facebook story is an inspiring one. Although Facebook contributed to tackling the covid19 info-demic through filtering the conspiracy theory discourses and spreading the scientific data and information about the virus, vaccine and treatment, it manipulated public opinions for commercial gains as revealed by its former employee Frances Haugen.
Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube are gaining tremendous strength to form and affect public opinion, which in turn strengthen or weaken development efforts.