Governments are losing the battle to regulate large technology and the corruptions of these companies must be exposed. The Irish whistleblower, Mark MacGann, – who was a lobbyist for Uber for two years – reported in January this year some unethical attitudes of the company.
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Mark MacGann leaked more than 124,000 company documents to The Guardian this year, revealing how Uber flouted the law, deceived the police, used violence against drivers, and secretly put pressure on the government between 2013 and 2017.
Governments and big tech companies
The government is still struggling to rein in big tech companies, MacGann said at the Web Summit in Lisbon on Wednesday. He also added that the government and democracy are losing this battle in an attempt to regulate big technologies.
MacGann justified it with the following comment: “Some of these tech companies have become big too much to regulate and are richer and more powerful than some of the states that are trying to regulate them”.
Actions to regulate this relationship
The tech industry in some of the biggest markets is taking steps to regulate its movements. The European Union is introducing the Digital Services Act to address issues such as harmful content and ad targeting, while the Digital Markets Act aims to combat anti-competitive behavior in sector.
In Britain, however, the online safety law, which creates a framework for dealing with content harmful on social media, stopped again after Rishi Sunak became prime minister in the month past.
MacGann's Advice for Business
When asked if he had information about the 70,000 people who attended the summit or those who watched online, MacGann said, “Remember why you joined, remember the power of technology, the power of telecommunications, the power of great software. Don't let a few bad apples ruin everything."
MacGann added that whistleblowers are not required to publicly expose their company's problems. “You don't have to change your life and become a public figure to try to right what's wrong. But if you back off and don't say anything, your conscience will be with it for a long time," he said.
