Written by Grant Lefelar
There are some things in life you simply can’t escape. Death. Taxes. Alcohol. A flat tire. In-laws. Being admonished by your boss. Pesky telemarketers. Bugs. A bitter break-up. More alcohol. An unreasonably bad grade. Really big bugs. Did I say taxes? Big Tech belongs on that list. Unless you’re an enviable earthworm living under a rock or one of the lucky few who’ve escaped to live off-the-grid in a makeshift treehouse in the jungle á la Swiss Family Robinson, the encroaching world of gizmos, gadgets, algorithms, bots, and Chinese-designed spyware made to compromise your shiny new thousand-dollar iPhone is here and here to stay. I predict, with a wavering level of certainty, that within thirty years we’ll all watch Marvel’s latest AI-generated offering featuring a never aging Scarlett Johansson, eat hardy KFC-sponsored meals around the VR family dinner table, go on romantic dates with our Amazon Alexas like Joaquin Phoenix in Her, and worship in churches at the altars of Elon Musk and Zuckerberg in the Matrix-like false realities of their design. But I digress. While that very well may be the dystopia we face in the future, there are a plethora of real, important issues revolving around Big Tech in 2023.
Intelligent and informed commentators and thinkers, namely Reason Senior Editor Robby Soave and Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC) Senior Policy Analyst Clare Morell, are more realistic in their modern diagnoses of the inescapable tech-dominated world. Robby Soave, author of Tech Panic and a government-critical libertarian, sees tech’s role in charting the future optimistically, based on the historic ability of humans to adapt and take advantage of innovative progress. Clare Morell, meanwhile, adopts a more skeptical view of Big Tech’s influence on modern life through a culturally conservative angle, seeing it as a negative force destroying the mental health of its users, namely young children—a force that must be reigned in by the powers that be. Soave and Morell differ on whether the U.S. federal or state governments should regulate Big Tech companies and platforms. To discuss their differences, Carolina Review and I hosted the two in Chapel Hill in late October to debate the necessity of Big Tech regulation.
In the debate, moderated by Prof. Mark McNeilly of the Kenan-Flagler Business School, Soave and Morell quickly established their differences on the government’s role in negating Big Tech’s widespread influence. Morell’s opposition to Big Tech stems from the need to protect the sanctity of children and families, stating, “the social media industry is a predatory industry akin to gambling, tobacco, [and] alcohol.” Morell also spoke on parents’ inability to monitor their children’s social media habits, claiming, “even the best parental control softwares available for purchase are very limited” when faced with social media juggernauts Snapchat and TikTok, the latter the main focus of conservative opposition over its links to the dictatorial communist Chinese government. For these reasons, Morell argued federal and state governments must “step in to empower parents” and end the hampered ability of parents to observe their children.
Soave countered Morell by arguing “a lot of the things conservatives want the government to do on the tech front…violate the First Amendment.” “Platforms ought to act with an interest in promoting civic integrity…but they are absolutely not required to under the First Amendment,” said Soave. While Soave agreed that Morell had legitimate concerns, he argued that government intervention was not the solution nor should Big Tech provoke “hand-wringing” on behalf of conservatives.
Next year, come November, Americans will slouch their way to the polls. Given current polling spelling doom for the White House’s current occupant, a Republican—a very specific, uniquely spray-tanned Republican—may find themselves catapulted back into the Oval Office. Will they throw a big jar of “screw you” in Silicon Valley’s robotic face or maintain the status quo? The debate between Robby Soave and Clare Morell provided plenty of insight on the concerns driving and informing both positions.
Full video of the debate and discussion on Big Tech can be found on Carolina Review’s YouTube page.