When think tanks set out to tackle big problems like digital misinformation and political divisiveness, they often respond with sweeping policy prescriptions. While well-intentioned, Washington’s political class tends to miss what Americans outside the Beltway care about – especially when it comes to the Internet. That’s exactly the error that New America, a centrist think tank, makes in its creatively titled “Digital Deceit II” report. Now, NetChoice, a trade association of businesses and online consumers, has taken some of the claims to task. Here’s how recent polls match up with the regulations called for by New America.
In that 67-page report, the authors paint a pretty grim picture of the Internet. Although there is clearly plenty of room for improvement, most Americans don’t think of the Internet or technology in quite the dystopian terms used by New America. A recent Gallup Poll found that Americans are actually more optimistic about the future and technology than at any point since 2010.
That New America report also uses some favorite, but ambiguous, buzzwords like privacy, transparency, and competition to call for stricter Internet regulations. Most Americans agree those things are actually important, but that doesn’t mean they agree with New America about what should be done about them.
New America calls for strict, top-down regulation of tech companies when it comes to data privacy, but Americans, it turns out, think that such regulation would harm consumer freedom and choice based on NetChoice polling.
Of course, privacy and consumer freedom aren’t a zero-sum game. Indeed, when it comes to logging off of services that do a poor job of protecting privacy, Americans do just that: 43 percent of American have chosen to stop using a social media platform.
Privacy matters and when a product isn’t useful and a platform loses user trust, Americans have no problem taking their clicks and patronage elsewhere. That means that, contrary to claims made by New America, consumers are empowered and that going after big firms because they don’t give American’s choice is the wrong approach.
One need not look further than recent headlines to see this in action. Google Plus tried to compete with social networking offered by other firms. Now, after news broke of unreported data breaches and a long-term struggle to attract users, Google Plus will be shut down. Instead other companies have dominated that sector and even Google couldn’t compete.
Americans understand this and just 5 percent of respondents to a recent poll said that tech platforms should be the focus of government antitrust resources. Americans care much more about cost effective and accessible products than breaking up companies alleged to be too big.
Moreover, a key dimension of competition is not just within America but abroad. The bottom line when it comes to massive and state supported firms like China’s Tencent and Alibaba, attacking successful American counterparts with antitrust regulations leaves the country at a disadvantage.
Perhaps most importantly, Americans like these Internet services to be free. NetChoice polling shows that Americans prefer online services paid for by targeted advertising by a 3-to-1 ratio isn’t at all surprising.
That isn’t to say that consumers wouldn’t like more access and control over their data, but that regulations must be done considering the preference for continued free services and the key role that targeted advertising plays in those services remaining free.
Overall, most Americans have benefited greatly from online platforms – including advertising. They contribute to the national economy and Americans recognize their value not only for shopping for large sites like Amazon, but also for small businesses. The trend towards online commerce is growing as more Americans report purchasing items online and increasingly communicate on digital platforms.
Policy solutions to pressing problems highlighted by recent data breaches, repeated misinformation campaigns, and divisiveness fueled by online platforms must take into account what Americans value when it comes to the Internet – not just what think tanks think is best.
In the end, both NetChoice and New America have a piece to the puzzle of how to humans can shape our interactions with the Internet for the best – finding the balance between the two is key.
