Biting the hand that feeds you: In defence of ‘Big Tech’
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
— Percy Shelley, 1817
I watched the Congressional Committee Hearings on the big technology companies. I watched three hours of it, live, on the New York Times website stream, so you didn’t have to. (It lasted six hours).
The assertion is that Apple, Amazon, Google and Facebook have grown too powerful and are abusing their power. Sitting before the committee were the Chief Executive Officers of these companies: Tim Cook, Jeff Bezos, Sundar Pichai and Mark Zuckerberg.
It was a ridiculous, farcical session. Frankly, it’s the politicians who are abusing power. Congressmen and women eager to say their piece, but not giving the witnesses time to answer.
One Congressman was so delusional with fringe conspiracy theories, that he asked why emails from his campaigns were directed to people’s junk folders. He saw this as “evidence” that these tech firms are “silencing Conservative voices”. He asked if these witnesses had authorised this.
Yeah, right. The CEO of Google has nothing better to do than manipulate the in-box of your party members. You don’t want to see what’s in my junk folder, but e-mails from Republican politicians would absolutely belong there.
Watching the session reminded me of the final courtroom speech by Jack Nicholson, as Colonel Jessup, at the end of “A Few Good Men”. It’s what these CEOs should have said: -
“I have a greater responsibility than you could possibly fathom. My existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to someone who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide, and then questions the manner in which I provide it! I would rather you just said, ‘Thank you’ and went on your way”.
Of course, there are questions. Foreign meddling in US elections, is proven. Using your data for their commercial gain, is proven.
There are dark forces out there. But don’t tell me that entrepreneurs who provide a service that we value, who provide these reliable, ‘always on’ platforms, are in alliance with enemies of the state. 15,000 Cyber security folks have been recruited by Facebook.
One of the things I learn from my kids when they play PlayStation and Fortnite, is to focus on what’s important in the moment, ignore irrelevant things, and shoot the right targets.
Congress is aiming wrongly. There are more sinister targets.
The Congressional Committees should bring Julian Assange in front of them. He is more culpable, more suspect, more anti-democratic. He stole confidential, restricted data. He endangers soldiers’ lives. The courts will have their day with him, no doubt.
The Congressional Committees should investigate how Jeffrey Epstein was murdered. Which powerful men (of course it’s men, it’s always men) made it happen. Epstein was a sick, degenerate crook, aided and abetted by the corrupt and powerful.
Particularly wasteful were the questions about Facebook buying Instagram. The Federal Trade Commission approved that in 2012. A good business decision, it was. But these Congressional Representatives see it as too successful. Absurd.
In the end, the tech giants don’t need a pat on the back from Congress. It is we who pat them on the back, every day, every hour. They have taken risks and built empires.
All empires decline eventually. But it won’t be politicians who decide when that is.
We’ll decide. For now, we should just say “Thank you” and be on our way.
James Neophytou
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