The covid-19 pandemic has graphically illustrated the importance of digital networks and service platforms. Imagine the shelter in place reality we would have experienced at the beginning of 21st century, only two decades ago: a slow internet and (because of that) nothing like Zoom or Netflix.
Digital networks that deliver the internet to our homes, and the services that ride on those networks have leapt from an ancillary "nice to have" to something that is critical to economic activity and our daily lives. It is time to consider whether these companies are too important to be left to make the rules governing their behavior themselves.
New Rules For a New Reality
It is neither unusual, nor untoward that innovators make the rules for the new reality they create. After all, they are the ones who see the future. The last time there was a major technological revolution- the industrial revolution-it was industrial capitalists like Rockefeller, Carnegie, and Morgan who made the rules. However, it ultimately became necessary to assert the public interest in the oversight of these activities.
The connectivity and services built by information capitalists have become too important to be left any longer without public participation in determining the rules they follow.
This does not mean that we need heavy handed regulation like in the industrial era. But it does mean that the critical nature of these digital services warrants public interest representation in decisions about their practices. We know the results of the companies making the rules.
-Nishan Neupane
Gorkha Model School
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