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Tech Giants, Once Seen as Saviors, Are Now Viewed as Threats

posted by martyb on Saturday October 14 2017, @12:34PM   Printer-friendly
from the follow-the-money dept.

Phoenix666 writes:

[...] tech companies are under fire for creating problems instead of solving them. At the top of the list is Russian interference in last year's presidential election. Social media might have originally promised liberation, but it proved an even more useful tool for stoking anger. The manipulation was so efficient and so lacking in transparency that the companies themselves barely noticed it was happening.

The election is far from the only area of concern. Tech companies have accrued a tremendous amount of power and influence. Amazon determines how people shop, Google how they acquire knowledge, Facebook how they communicate. All of them are making decisions about who gets a digital megaphone and who should be unplugged from the web.

Their amount of concentrated authority resembles the divine right of kings, and is sparking a backlash that is still gathering force.

Is it that the tech companies are creating problems for society as a whole, or merely disrupting the status quo for the old Powers-That-Be?

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Gaaark on Saturday October 14 2017, @08:06PM (3 children)

    by Gaaark (41) on Saturday October 14 2017, @08:06PM (#582394) Journal

    Money concentration concerns me because it MEANS power: the more money you have the more potential power you have.

    Money means you can corrupt others with less money.
    Money means you can make laws in your favour.
    Money means you can make things how you want them: pervert the internet how you want like how Rupert Murdoch perverts the news to how he wants it to be read/seen.

    Money means power: a LOT of money means a LOT of power and absolute money means absolute power.

    Absolute power corrupts something something

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    --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
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  • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday October 15 2017, @11:10AM

    by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Sunday October 15 2017, @11:10AM (#582600) Homepage Journal

    Money concentration concerns me because it MEANS power: the more money you have the more potential power you have.

    Emphasis added to show you're saying the same thing I am, just poorly. Just because money can clumsily be exchanged for temporary power does not make it power itself.

    --
    My rights don't end where your fear begins.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 16 2017, @05:30PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 16 2017, @05:30PM (#583064)

    I've seen the Simpsons, I know this!

    Absolute power corrupts

    go crazy.

    • (Score: 2) by Gaaark on Monday October 16 2017, @08:54PM

      by Gaaark (41) on Monday October 16 2017, @08:54PM (#583159) Journal

      Ah, I see you've played saney insaney before!

      --
      --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---