author: Bart Swiatek
Google's Ex-CEO on Social Media: „Amplifiers for Idiots”
Eric Schmidt, former Google CEO and member of Alphabet holding's board of directors, currently one of its shareholders, said during a conversation that social media serve as amplifiers for idiots and crazy people. In his opinion, this was not the original idea of their creators and unless something changes, new regulations will appear.
IN A NUTSHELL:
- Former Google CEO called social networking sites "amplifiers for idiots and crazy people".
- In his opinion, if the industry doesn't find a way to improve the situation on its own, there will be new regulations;
- Eric Schmidt also denied reports suggesting that Google is abusing its position by blocking competition.
During a virtual conference organized by the Wall Street Journal, the former CEO of Google strongly criticized social media (via Bloomberg). Eric Schmidt described them as "amplifiers for idiots and crazy people", emphasizing that this was not what their creators wanted. In his opinion, if the industry does not find a solution to the problem by itself, the law will be changed.
"The context of social networks serving as amplifiers for idiots and crazy people is not what we intended. Unless the industry gets its act together in a really clever way, there will be regulation," said Schmidt.
Google's former boss most likely refers to the ongoing debate in the US on the introduction of changes to the so-called Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act. Thanks to these provisions, social networking websites (among others), such as Twitter or Facebook, are not considered as a publisher from the point of view of press law and do not take responsibility for the content published on them by individual users. This enables them to act as public communication platforms, which in theory serves the common good. However, according to section 230 critics, companies in practice interfere in statements (e.g. banning users or censoring posts) with which they disagree or which they consider harmful, based on their own criteria and/or political line. At the same time, in cases where someone requires them to react on another issue, they hide behind the law in question. According to some people, this gives them excessive power and the ability to manipulate public opinion.
The conversation also mentions accusations of monopolistic practices against Google. The former head of the company (until 2019 he was also a member of the board of Alphabet holding, the owner of Google and still remains one of its shareholders) believes that the success of his former company is due to the fact that people choose the search engine it created. In his opinion, the company is not using its position to block competition.
“I would be careful about these dominance arguments. I just don’t agree with them. Google’s market share is not 100%," said Schmidt.