OPINION
How can tech giants REGAIN USERS’ TRUST?
Maria Moraes Robinson shares an invitation to forward-thinking leaders to take a broader view of deep tech in order to open up new conversations, dialogues and questions, and explore pathways of growth, value and impact
I n times of great change – such as the one we are currently living through – the challenge for business leaders is immense. With ever- more access to information, people are calling for greater transparency, demanding that their relationships with organisations and brands be authentic, true and of high quality. The impact of this new reality was felt intensely by Meta (Facebook’s parent company) following the recent public revelations of two whistle-blowers. In her testimony to the US Senate, Frances Haugen made the claim that Meta’s internal research showed that its social media services were damaging the mental health of teenage girls, while Sophie Zhang said she had ‘blood on her hands’ after working at the company. People are now losing trust in big tech due to their questions around their concentration of power, political interference, the potential use of unauthorised surveillance, and the harvesting of personal data. Society is changing rapidly, with many barriers, in various areas, now falling or becoming porous. This means that the actions of organisations are becoming more transparent, and people are becoming increasingly aware of what they want and what is good for them.
The case of Meta’s questionable ethics has profoundly impacted the trust that people have in all tech giants, as they have become more aware of the way in which artificial intelligence algorithms can purposely manipulate social media feeds to instigate division, rather than to nurture unity and consensus. When social media companies first launched, the focus was purely on the core interactions that their platforms enabled to help people connect, communicate and share. For example, Facebook’s key interactions are ‘liking’, sharing, and viewing content on the timeline; WhatsApp’s are sending short messages, images, or archives. What remained hidden from public view was these platforms’ value exchange: that aspect of the platform that sustains its business model. So, while GlassDoor has a transparent value exchange – sharing details of a user’s salary in exchange for providing them with information that might help them to further their career – Facebook has an advertising-based business model centred around targeting the news feed. Although this is not a crime in itself, the ethical question that Meta and other tech giants now face is whether it is acceptable to
Maria Moraes Robinson is the co-author of Deep Tech and the Amplified Organisation, and the CEO (Brazil) of business consultancy Holonomics.
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