NST Leader: Of tech titans and online harm

New Straits Times

05-06-2025

OF late, many governments are recognising that technology needs to be rooted in ethics; otherwise it won't be a force for good. But tech titans want technology to be left alone. To them, their platforms are content enablers: anyone can write anything they want.
Pushed to the limit, this would mean unethical content such as fake news and hate speech. This is not something that might happen; it has been happening for the longest time. Left with no choice, some governments are turning to the law to tame technology.
Take the European Union's Digital Services Act and allied legislation. They are based on a very simple concept: social media platforms, being content curators, must take responsibility for everything they publish.
Can't blame the EU; self-policing isn't one of the strong points of social media platforms. With the oversight of the platforms being taken over by the EU, many analysts expect the digital world to change for the better.
Malaysia, too, wants the digital world to be more ethical than it is now, but it is trying a milder version by inviting social media platforms to join the Communications and Multimedia Content Forum (CMCF), an industry-led effort to ensure that more ethical content appears online.
Mild though the CMCF is, Meta, X and Instagram have refused to be part of it, despite several invitations. They are missing a golden opportunity to join others in the technology business to set best practices for the industry.
Because the CMCF provides the technology companies a second chance at self-policing, so to speak. Having scored badly before, they should grab the opportunity to do better now.
Refusing to be part of the CMCF means the tech titans are not keen on moderating harmful content online. But they must know their algorithms make harm worse.
This is why nations around the world are resorting to a regulatory framework to compel them to curate their content. Otherwise, the companies and their officers will suffer punitive costs.
As if algorithms aren't bad enough, artificial intelligence-powered scams are making digital platforms a more harmful world. A 2025 Jumio Online Identity Study published recently and reported in this newspaper yesterday is clear: AI fraud is eroding digital trust.
Technology titans must also read it as people losing trust in them. Of the 8,000 adults surveyed in the United Kingdom, the United States, Mexico and Singapore, only 37 per cent believe most social media accounts are authentic, and just 36 per cent say they still trust the online news they consume.
Here is more: some 76 per cent fear the use of AI to create fake identity documents and 75 per cent are concerned about scam emails crafted by AI to steal passwords or money.
For technology titans whose social media platforms have become the new media outlets, this is surely bad news. Views may earn them 90 per cent of their revenue from advertisements, but at this level of trust and fear, in no time the bear will be at the door.
There is only one of two ways for the technology titans to preserve trust: to self-police their platforms or join others in crafting best practices for the industry.