OpenFin CEO Mazy Dar says a robust regulatory framework can support efficiency and results while also promoting transparency and fairness.
Move fast and break things: It’s a philosophy that many in the tech world have adopted as their mantra, long after Mark Zuckerberg immortalized it as the unofficial motto of Silicon Valley.
Innovation is the lifeblood of the technology industry, but what happens when new technological paradigms “break things” and there’s shattered glass on the floor? Who is stuck with the bill?
Across the world, lawmakers and regulatory agencies are mulling this question, and many have big tech squarely in their sights. The recent case of Facebook’s proposed Libra token is a good illustration of this – U.S. Congress had a bipartisan field day with the social media giant during a series of heated hearings, expressing their skepticism of both the proposed cryptocurrency and the social media giant’s good faith. Across the pond, the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation targeting data privacy, and the UK’s recently announced Digital Markets Unit to monitor large online companies, are similar examples of this growing consensus.
In electoral politics, Democratic presidential primary candidate Elizabeth Warren has listed breaking up big tech as a central tenet of her platform, turning it into a hotly debated topic on the campaign trail. On the other side of the aisle, calls for measures to prevent firms like Facebook or Google from censoring conservative speech have become common among Republicans.
Regardless of how you might feel about these regulations in isolation, the sum total is enough to make your head spin. Look at the headlines on any given day, and it’s easy to get the impression that there is a war on big tech.
The architects of our new technological ecosystem can be forgiven for sounding the alarm. After all, wasn’t it just a decade ago that Silicon Valley was the darling of a world on the cusp of digital revolution? Hasn’t it brought people closer together in ways once thought impossible? Won’t these new regulations suffocate the very spirit that thrust the tech world into the spotlight in the first place?
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