Mark Zuckerberg's hearings at the Congress reinstalled the debate on how much control politicians and even users can put over the tech giants.
Photo taken from La FM
"Here's what's going to happen: There are going to be a whole bunch of bills introduced to regulate Facebook. It's up to you whether they pass or not. You can go back home, spend 10 million dollars on lobbyists and fight us, or you can go back home and help us solve this problem".
That's what senator John Kennedy's stated during Mark Zuckerberg's two-day visit to the United States Congress.
Facebook's CEO was called to the Capitolium to explain the role of his business in the scandal of Cambridge Analytica, the British political consulting firm which collected data from 87 million people through an app on the social network.
It was believed that the 33-year-old businessman would have to face a sharp inquiry or that his company would somehow be punished, but after two days of regrets and leaving more doubts than answers, the scenario got reduced to Kennedy's comment: Facebook has the power and the money to avoid any penalty. They are free to decide whether they change for a better data processing and how they plan to do it.
In case of keeping the receptive attitude shown on the audience, Zuckerberg and his team have now the opportunity to work on transparency to strengthen the company's reputation and to ease user experience on their platforms.
Small changes, huge impact
Recent circumstances involve Facebook, but it can easily extend to other tech major ones –such as Amazon, Apple or Google- which handle data from billions of people and can influence not only their purchase decisions, but their day-to-day views.
Without regard of their policies or purposes, these companies can make some changes to prevent from another scandal like Cambridge Analytica's one. And what's best for them is that those actions can intertwine to generate an even bigger impact.
The most urgent need implicates a communicative response: checking and rewriting their policies. They know their platforms host from teenagers to users with little mastery of technology, so the terms of service and the privacy policy shall be delivered on a clear, suitable-for-all language.
It's also essential to specify what each firm understands by ethics and how it links to that definition –beyond legal compliance-. Then the concept has to be embraced in the business and become one of the bases of the company culture, so it won't look like the CEO, the board and the workers have a different version of it. A unified corporate speech is key on this matter.
Finally, the big tech firms must adopt self-regulation as an ethic principle, for their developments usually put them one step ahead of the law. To transcend the innovation of softwares and algorithms to internal process and normative is the best way to prove, in the face of any inconsistency, that their intention has been to be proactive in benefit of the digital community.
