(TargetLiberty.org) – Microsoft boss Satya Nadella joined the debate about free speech and technology on Wednesday, but he didn’t add a lot of clarity to the discussion. His message is likely to be used by both sides of the argument.
In a February 10 interview with Emily Chang of Bloomberg News, Nadella called for more regulation to set the boundaries of online free speech, a key goal of leftists who are trying to censor conservative voices on the internet. But he also criticized the power of big tech companies to impose their own limits on free speech, a point usually made by conservatives.
Satya Nadella says social media platforms need clearer laws to help decide whether controversial accounts, like Donald Trump's, have a place on their services (Bloomberg)https://t.co/MhGlmbUl3ihttps://t.co/LavUg65TZM
— Techmeme (@Techmeme) February 10, 2021
Microsoft doesn’t have a direct stake in the social media market, but it does provide the software many people use to access the internet – and it’s also no stranger to government regulation. In the 1990s, there was a string of antitrust lawsuits against the Redmond, WA-based company over its distribution of the free Internet Explorer browser with Windows. Now Nadella says the social media companies need to learn the limits of their power and accept that they’re going to face competition. That’s a message the arrogant CEOs of companies like Facebook and Twitter should heed.
Copyright 2020, TargetLiberty.org
