By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 1-8-20
Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) used an informational hearing on deep fakes and other online manipulation to hammer Big Tech in general and Facebook in particular, while Republicans found more to like on the edge.
The hearing, “Americans at Risk: Manipulation and Deception in the Digital Age,” in the House Consumer Protection Subcommittee that Schakowsky chairs, exhibited the current political split over how to address a problem both sides concede, the rise of online deception.
Generally, Democrats who used to treat the edge as plucky upstarts to the big content and distribution companies have come around to seeing them as even bigger, now entrenched, companies in need of minding. Republicans are promoting self-regulation by The Edge as they traditionally have Big Media, though both sides of the aisle agree that there needs to be some governor, whether self-regulation or government regulation or a mix of both, on companies with net worth exceeding that of some countries’ GNP and with huge stakes in arguably the most pervasive and transformative technology in human history. » Read More