The Regulation of the Internet
Do we need a Internet Bill of Rights?
The Bills of Rights also known as the first 10 amendments of the American constitution a document or piece of legislation setting out the rights or entitlements of the American people. The Constitution specifically guarantees of personal freedoms and rights, clear limitations on the government’s power in judicial and other proceedings.
In a world where giant Tech Companies like Facebook and Google have data of a population numbered higher than 2 Billion people which is higher than most populated countries on earth. It begs the question do this companies need a little more scrutiny, than the GDPR enforced on data privacy — in America. Hence the “Internet Bill of Rights” — proposed by Mr. Ro Khanna the democratic representative of Silicon Valley Home to Facebook, Apple and Google.
Right of millions of Americans and other worlds citizens have had their rights violated for years now but only came to the public eye when Facebook came under fire when Cambridge Analytical misused the data that was made available to them as advertisers on their network. The EU lawmakers recently passed a copyright reforms that could have far-reaching consequences for the business models of tech giants like Google and Facebook.
One might be tempted to ask if all this scrutiny is too much for the tech Giants? Companies like Google and Twitter, meanwhile, are concerned the reforms will do more damage to the web than good. Google argues the new law will “hurt Europe’s creative and digital economies,” while Twitter says it’s concerned about the potential impact on the “open, creative and conversational nature of the internet.”
With majority of our daily lives being digital and our privacy being taken for granted States like California have home to all the Tech Giants passed a digital privacy law in June 2018, granting consumers more control over and insight into the spread of their personal information online, creating one of the most significant regulations overseeing the data-collection practices of technology companies in the United States. The Law is not as expansive as the GDPR, but it gives customers the right to know what information the company is collecting about them and why they are collecting the information. The Law also makes it more difficult to share and sell data of children under the age of 16, among other laws .
Months after the California law was passed Facebook was under fire again after a security breach put up to 50 Million users at risk. The complacency in which Facebook handles data is cast a dark cloud over them as this has brought the CEO Mark Zuckerberg multiple times to congress to defend his company and it is also impeding Facebook from the creation of “Libra” — A digital currency facebook wants to launch into the Crypto-currency space. A Congress woman asked Mr. Zuckerberg “Why should we trust you with our hard earned money when we can not trust you with our phone numbers and email addresses”
With all the controversies surrounding the Data and Privacy of people I think it will be fair enough to citizens of the country to feel safer with their information in the digital landscape. Because, without any guardrails to protect citizens they have a lot more to loose than the big corporations. Ms Nancy Pelosi is one of the Lawmakers to champion stricter regulations of the the Big Tech companies and she said in an Interview with Kara Swisher about a month ago, “Something needs to be done,” she told Kara,to “protect the privacy of the American people” — a set of principles that everyone can agree on and adhere to.
Call it a Bill of Rights for the internet. Which Mr. Ro Khanna created. (It is important to Know that they are just principles intended to guid lawmakers into making it a Law internet companies must abide by)
This Bill of Rights provides a set of principles that are about giving users more control of their online lives while creating a healthier internet economy.”
In conclusion, The internet age and digital revolution have changed Americans’ way of life. As our lives and the U.S. economy are more tied to the internet, it is essential to provide Americans with basic protections online. With all the controversies surrounding Data and privacy, It is safe to say I am pro Internet Bill of Rights.
Thank You.
See You Next week.
