Power and Information in Digital Governance: The Influence of Tech Giants and the Challenges of Media Literacy

I do not have enough time to organize a team or invite panelists to a roundtable discussion in APrIGF 2024. I have listed some interesting issues for anyone who wants to send proposals to APrIGF 2024 or anyone who wants to discuss these issues in any Internet Governance Forum (IGF). As an observer of the internet or digital technology policy and development, I raise my concerns about how the government regulates the internet technology of tech giant companies and how people enhance media literacy.

1. The Tech Giants may control our lives and be stronger than the government. 

Last year, Microsoft announced plans to invest 2.5 billion pounds in artificial intelligence infrastructure in the UK. Of course, The UK government welcomes the investment. Any government welcomes foreign enterprises' investment in emerging technology, especially in cyber(AI or internet)security, talent education, semiconductors, or other technology infrastructures. At the same time, the UK Competition Market Authority (CMA) is also investigating the cloud computing and cloud services of tech giants such as Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft, etc. The UK CMA also researched the AI Foundation Madles and published the documents, raising their concerns about the tech giants controlling the whole AI development ecosystem. Cloud service (no matter whether cloud storage or computing) is an essential factor in AI foundation models. Suppose any startup uses one cloud service but wants to change to another service. In that case, the small company may have problems on moving their data and choosing a better solution for the new business is very difficult. For example, a startup may have a limited budget and want to move all the data from one cloud service to another or other costless solutions. Still, the startup may be unable to afford the cost of moving data to a better solution. Or, one day, the mother company of the cloud service decides to close the service.  Because of the bundle and tying mechanisms from the cloud service ecosystem, the startup is losing its competitive advantage and ownership of the company's data. The government welcomes foreign enterprises' investment and brings competition concerns to local businesses and startups, possibly harming the competition, consumers, and end users.

2. People should care about Media Literacy under the control of the tech giants.

 I read a blog post about Google's decision to remove California news links against the "California Journalism Preservation Act" today. This is not the first time these tech giants have opposed government regulations.  Google also removed news links from Canadian media, and Meta removed news links from Canada, the US, and Australia. The algorithm makes me see some specific news; maybe I just clicked the link or searched Google or ChatGPT. It happens on my X(Twitter) timeline. Why is this important? Because I didn't see the news about the UAE's flood on social media, the climate crisis news happens everywhere. But I only know the news about the earthquake in Taiwan and Japan, and Taiwanese people will probably have a drought this year again and earlier than last year. Also, there is some nonsense political gossip showing on social media channels. Some countries have probably experienced disasters and need help, but few people see the information because the algorithm or internet platform has decided to remove the news link. How can people ask for help via the internet? How do people do fact checks without information resources to testify to the authenticity? 

People have discussed these issues several times in Internet Governance Forums. But it is the time we, the end users, are facing now. Some advocates may want to discuss them in an IGF or elsewhere. I want to see some people raise their discussion and invite panelists to provide opinions and show IGF's power.

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Image by Joshua Woroniecki from Pixabay

Some assists by ChatGPT and Grammarly.