Irish Examiner view: Tech giants’ power must be curtailed

Uphill battle to probe conglomorates

The ambition to rebalance the out-of-kilter relationships between societies and the tech empires cannot be realised soon enough.

This week Ireland recoiled from another reckoning with our past when the terrible injustices and cruelties of the mother and baby homes were formally recognised. The hypocrisy and sanctimony of those who imposed their worldview seem, at this remove, astounding, almost incomprehensible. The obvious, hard question — "Did no-one shout stop?" — recurs. It is possible, indeed it is probable, that someone did but were drowned in cultural hubris. A theocracy was not open to challenge and society did not have the confidence to challenge it. It is of little consolation to those traumatised in those settings that today's hopes suggest institutionalised abuse would not be tolerated, though some of those vulnerable people dependent on today's direct provision services might challenge that assessment. 

This week's report was more a long-dreaded confirmation than an expose and showed that some important lessons remain unlearned. We are deaf to warnings about inaction or deferred token action. Our not-just-yet delusion around climate change is an example. The difficulties at some private nursing homes are a reminder too that we need to quickly do much, much more to prepare for a far higher proportion of older people in our society. 

Watchdog said it said it faced an uphill battle to investigate conglomerates with “disproportionate resources”.

The Data Protection Commission yesterday offered another warning, one that may again fall on deaf ears, on one of the issues of the age. The commission warned it was “acutely strained” in its efforts to resolve cases involving tech companies and complaints from the public. The watchdog said it said it faced an uphill battle to investigate conglomerates with “disproportionate resources”. The commission stated the obvious, not too easily resolved dichotomy of our world. No small country, not even a group of small countries, has the heft to limit tech empires, especially those with free-for-all social media platforms. 

In a week when Twitter privatised free speech and banned President Donald Trump from their platform, and his 88m followers, it is no longer possible to even pretend that any national democracy can control these behemoths. Indeed, it is difficult to be sure that the president of America, no matter who it is, is as influential as any one tech giant. It is impossible to argue that even the world's most powerful politician is a match for the combined power of, say, the top five tech giants. Like our data commission, the world's democracies are “acutely strained” in this mismatch.

But what to do? How can a red line be drawn to protect the sane from the insane? How can the wildest conspiracy theories or profoundly dangerous anti-vaxxers be sidelined or at the very least challenged effectively? 

The answer to those questions is, for the moment at least, disspiriting. Like a brave garda officer who might have confronted a local bishop in, say, the 1960s or 1970s about a priest sexually abusing children, success was not immediately guaranteed. Yet, as this week's report and apology show, cover-ups and denial can only last for so long.

If the Biden presidency renews America's relationship with Europe, as is expected, that partnership and its allies will have the power to rebalance out-of-kilter relationships between societies and the tech empires. That ambition is ongoing and cannot be realised soon enough.