Big Tech Should Do No Harm

Simon Fell, MP for Barrow & Furness 

We have spent more time online over the last 18 months than ever before, with lockdowns and social distancing pushing our lives to be ever more digital. With this, the power and influence of big tech companies has never been clearer. 

While the pandemic has shone a spotlight on this issue, the role of technology companies in our lives has long been an area of interest to me. Before I became an MP I served on the funding council of the Internet Watch Foundation, an organisation dedicated to eliminating child abuse online and making the internet a safer place for everyone. My last job before entering parliament was in financial crime – working with government, law enforcement and industry to put in safeguards to prevent criminals from using the awesome power of technology to their own ends. Now in Parliament, I chair the All Party Parliamentary Group on Cyber Security. 

At its best, technology is empowering. It can allow us to learn, do business, find community, and work together to develop solutions to pressing social challenges. But at its worst technology can allow disinformation to spread, scams to flourish and our children to be vulnerable to sexual predators. 

In some consumer’s eyes, the harms are starting to outweigh the benefits and are influencing behaviour change. Consumer trust in big tech is at an all time low. A recent Which? survey found that over two thirds of people (68%) said they have little or no trust that online platforms will protect them from scams, unsafe products and fake reviews. 

Consumers aren’t the only stakeholders sounding the alarm. The employees of big tech are also coming forward. Facebook employees recently leaked internal research highlighting the harmful impact of Instagram on users (particularly teenage girls) after the company failed to act. Apple employees asked for an external audit of the company's whistleblowing policy and complained of pressure to blur the lines between their personal and professional lives. Amazon has long been criticised for working conditions staff call ‘inhumane’, including unachievable productivity targets. And it’s not just the social media companies. Gig economy platforms like Deliveroo and Uber have faced continual challenges both in the UK and abroad over the way in which they manage their relationship with their workforce.   

It’s clear that the tech giants will have to rethink their strategy if they want to retain customers and employees, and compete with the challengers that are attracting conscious audiences seeking more control over their digital lives. Repairing trust and reducing harm will be a key component within this. This should be exercising the minds of decision makers in the boardroom. 

The Government has already recognised the need to act and is taking a significant step forward through the forthcoming Online Harms Bill. The Bill will hold big tech to account for the content shared through its platforms, giving Ofcom the power to impose significant financial penalties for those who do not comply. 

This is a positive development and will prompt the tech sector to recognise and address some of its biggest harms including hate speech, disinformation, and racial and sexual abuse. But will it be enough to repair the reputation of big tech, and shouldn’t we be more ambitious in our expectations of these companies?  

On the Home Affairs Committee recently we heard evidence from professional footballers about the sustained racial abuse they have received on social media. Twitter and Instagram appeared unable to explain why clear racial slurs were not being removed through either their moderation teams or the algorithms they have in place. Even worse, a laundry list of posts had been reported for sharing such content, with no action taken weeks after the fact. As former England defender Anton Ferdinand made clear in front of the committee, there is no profit motive for social media companies to remove content that creates a ‘frenzy’, no matter how distasteful – or hateful – it may be.

I believe big tech has the capacity to go much further than simply mitigating its harms and become a force for good in society. Many new tech companies are already leading the way with great initiatives that improve people’s health, education, and sense of community. Take for example Tiney, a platform driving up the standards of early years education for children. Tiney train early childcare providers, supporting individuals to start and manage small childcare businesses out of their own homes. The initiative seeks to tackle the development gap that emerges between disadvantaged children and their peers before they even begin school. We can make these types of initiatives the norm, but we need to change the regulatory environment big tech is operating within first.

We need to recognise that the structure and monetisation of big tech companies drives many of its most egregious behaviours. We also must expand our understanding of social media to include some of the smaller platforms – Gab, BitChute, Telegram amongst others – and recognise that what is being shared there can be as impactful, if not more so, as content on ‘mainstream’ social media. We should also consider the role of these platforms in enabling financial crime, whether through the harvesting of personal data, the blatant sale of breach data, or the hosting of scams.

And it is at this point where old and new economies meet. No matter how sophisticated the technology, at its heart, this is an issue about how decision makers in business exercise their judgement, choose their priorities and decide in whose interests they will act. This is at the heart of proposals to update our corporate governance that should make a huge change for the better in how tech impacts our lives.

The Better Business Act Campaign is proposing an amendment to the Companies Act that would open the door for big tech to play a very different, more positive role in society. The change would ensure that the interests of customers, communities and the environment enter into the decision-making equation and are considered alongside companies’ obligations to shareholders. This campaign is backed by over 750 British businesses with many tech companies, including Tiney, behind them. 

This could be the push the tech sector needs to become a force for good – to Do No Harm - and recapture the early promise of the networked society, contributing to solving some of the world’s major social issues, and bringing digital communities together in common purpose for the public good.