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Can you suggest a better strategy at policing data misuse by social media companies, other than regulating social media explicitly (as this post calls for)? I

Can you suggest a better strategy at policing data misuse by social media companies, other than regulating social media explicitly (as this post calls for)? I agree that Mark Zuckerberg/Facebook is unshakably biased and shouldn't be writing the regulations themselves -- but nothing in the linked article seems to me to be written in bad faith. In fact, I see the same talking points (ex: bringing GDPR to the US, adopting a common standard for social media communication) all over HN. The idea that small competitors should be able to launch with minimal capital, and the idea that social media vendors should protect users' data, are fundamentally in tension. It costs money to protect user privacy, full stop. Yeah, it's possible for a Facebook/Microsoft/Google/whoever to bend the regulations to widen their moat, but it's the job of the regulatory bodies to ensure that the regulations are fair. The question shouldn't be "should we regulate social media?" The answer, IMO, is a resounding YES. The real question should be "who should be in charge of building those regulations?"

tcbawo 8y ago
FINRA is a non-government, industry driven (self-regulatory) organization for the US stock market. It exists to discourage fraud and bad practices without requiring a heavy hand of government. The SEC mostly focuses on lawbreakers. Internet companies would do well to create a similar, open structure before government steps in to over-regulate.
- catern 8y ago
  Hmm, if you directly translated FINRA to internet companies, new startups would have to be licensed with the internet SRO (self-regulatory organization) before they could offer services to the public. That's an interesting idea, is it actually what you are suggesting?
  - tcbawo 8y ago
    I don't have a concrete proposal. I was just trying to illustrate that there may be a model inbetween total and zero regulation. The line of demarcation could be storing personally identifying information, interfacing with advertising networks, or maybe even ownership of certain patent/intellectual property rights.

tcbawo 8y ago

FINRA is a non-government, industry driven (self-regulatory) organization for the US stock market. It exists to discourage fraud and bad practices without requiring a heavy hand of government. The SEC mostly focuses on lawbreakers. Internet companies would do well to create a similar, open structure before government steps in to over-regulate.

catern 8y ago
Hmm, if you directly translated FINRA to internet companies, new startups would have to be licensed with the internet SRO (self-regulatory organization) before they could offer services to the public. That's an interesting idea, is it actually what you are suggesting?
- tcbawo 8y ago
  I don't have a concrete proposal. I was just trying to illustrate that there may be a model inbetween total and zero regulation. The line of demarcation could be storing personally identifying information, interfacing with advertising networks, or maybe even ownership of certain patent/intellectual property rights.