Like banks in the 2008 financial crisis, Facebook and other tech giants are “too big to fail”, according to research from Oxford University that calls for new regulations to protect users, and society, in the event of a possible collapse. In their paper, published in the Internet Policy Review journal on Tuesday, Carl Öhmana and Nikita Aggarwal argue that the world’s biggest technology companies are unlikely to suddenly go out of business – but the world is unprepared for what would happen if they did.
For users, the collapse of Facebook could have wide-ranging ramifications. Most immediately, losing use of the site itself. That, notes Aggarwal, is a particularly acute problem in many developing countries, “where Facebook may be the main way people communicate. Here in the UK we have a diversity of options.” The sudden loss of Facebook could separate people from friends, family, accurate sources of information or a critical engine of commerce.
The comparison with banking also stretches to the way opponents of the power of big tech should think about the proposals, he says. At one end of the spectrum, regulating Facebook as a Siti could involve, for instance, “constraints on using our data; on advertising; on free speech; on hate speech”, says Aggarwal. But at the other end, the pair argue, grander comparisons are needed: Facebook’s archive could be declared a “site of digital global heritage”, akin to the world heritage status Unesco bestows on physical sites around the world.
Source: The Guardian
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