In an op-ed for The New York Daily News, Distinguished Professor Nick Freudenberg says big tech companies must take responsibility for the health burdens they impose upon users such as social isolation, health misinformation, and the promotion of harmful products.
To protect health, rein in Big Tech: Influential companies must take responsibility for effects
By Nicholas Freudenberg New York Daily News | Mar 29, 2021
Dr. Nicholas Freudenberg
Big Tech is finally getting the scrutiny it deserves. The Federal Trade Commission and 46 state attorneys general are suing Facebook for anti-competitive conduct; the Department of Justice has brought a case against Google, challenging its dominance in search engines; ten Republican attorneys general are suing Google over its ad technology practices; and legislators in three states are proposing a new tax on digital advertisements sold by Facebook, Amazon and Google.
These are important efforts to rein in Big Tech’s economic advantages, but the global technology giants’ increasing harm to our health has not yet attracted the attention it warrants. As the world struggles to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, address the climate emergency, and manage the rising anxiety and depression triggered by our increasingly stress-filled lives, new strategies to reduce the health burdens imposed by companies like Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple and Microsoft (known as GAFAM) are urgently needed.
How do GAFAM and their partners harm health? First, the products and practices of these companies lead to social isolation, as strong a predictor of early death as smoking, obesity, or elevated blood pressure. Second, GAFAM have created global platforms for promoting misinformation, quack cures, and conspiracy theories that make it harder for people to get the care and information necessary protect their health. Third, GAFAM relentlessly promote unhealthy products like soda, alcohol, and e-cigarettes, often seeking to bypass parental and government restrictions on such marketing.
GAFAM also treat workers in ways that damage health. When New York State Attorney General Letitia James proposed stronger regulations to protect workers at tech companies, Amazon sued her, arguing she lacked jurisdiction. Uber and Lyft use algorithms designed by Big Tech to relentlessly oversee drivers and maintain control of the work experience, increasing stress and work-family conflicts. Finally, GAFAM undermine the core values that support health: human dignity, privacy, democracy, and fairness.
How can the U.S. reverse these trends? Previous successes in modifying harmful business practices can inspire a focused agenda to restore the capacity of ordinary people to shape their health. The planks of this agenda should include:
Strengthen and enforce anti-trust laws. In past eras, the U.S. has successfully broken up oil, railroad and telephone monopolies. Bringing trust-busting and enforcement into the 21st century can constrain the unprecedented power of Big Tech.
Restore public control of the internet. In the past, television and radio airwaves were viewed as public property deserving protection from special interests. Today we need to expand public oversight and ownership of cyberspace to ensure that its use benefits rather than harms the public.
Give parents and governments the authority and tools they need to protect their children from digital exploitation. Organizations like the Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood suggest how parents, educators, and communities can advocate for stronger protection of our children from unscrupulous social media marketing.
Impose strict liability on Big Tech for harms done. To reduce the harms of tobacco use, public policies held the tobacco industry accountable for the costs of tobacco-related diseases imposed on their customers and taxpayers. This proved to be a powerful tool for changing industry practices. Today we need new laws that hold GAFAM companies and their partners liable for injuries and deaths from the cyber-bullying their platforms enable; the illnesses generated by the predatory social media marketing of unhealthy products; and the mental health consequences of the social isolation they generate.
Require Big Tech companies to protect the health of their workers. As a dominant sector of our economy, Big Tech should set an example for worker protection, rather than looking to defeat laws to protect tech workers, unions, and public officials seeking to enforce the law. Governments should use existing laws and pass new ones to protect workers and resist lobbying efforts that ask for special breaks for these companies.
Limit power of GAFAM to lobby and make campaign and dark money contributions in support of weakening democracy and corporate accountability. The Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision gave corporations new freedom to undermine democracy as illustrated by Big Tech’s growing campaign contributions, lobbying efforts, public relations campaigns, and philanthropic contributions. Revisiting our laws on campaign contributions, lobbying, and dark money would help our country restore a democracy where citizens can hold GAFAM accountable.
The COVID-19 pandemic and its economic consequences, a new more health-conscious administration in Washington and growing public scrutiny of Big Tech make this the right time to act. Let us not miss this opportunity to end social media companies’ health-damaging practices.
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