Consumers: More Regulation
A new survey finds that Americans generally want more regulation — flying in the face of Silicon Valley tech-bro libertarianism
One of the main thrusts of the libertarianism of Silicon Valley has been deregulation and an almost shrill insistence on individual freedom of choice, which too often entails bashing trusted intermediaries, professionals, and experts — even if individuals indicate they want them. Instead, we’re forced in the more “scalable” (read, “profitable”) platforms built on algorithms — which actually exploit us.
Individual freedoms are the bedrock of liberal democracies. All the “freedom” offered by Silicon Valley sounded great until we saw how it could be abused when it gets out of balance — when it was used to justify massive technology companies abdicating their responsibilities to children and teens; to downplay the amplification of lies or abuse of others in the name of “free speech”; and in our industry to pooh-pooh a major conflict of interest in authors paying publishers and therefore editors to pursue a strategy of “free information.”
Even today, I think many of us would suspect that a survey would show that people generally like less regulation. However, a recent poll by YouGov suggests this is not the case, and the desire for more regulation is actually growing.
Across a wide range of industries — AI, pharma, news media, healthcare, tech, social media, internet services, and many more — the majority of Americans surveyed want either the current level of regulation or more regulation.