Drupal Creator Floats an "FDA For Data and Algorithms"

jeffengel writes: When Facebook's news feed and Google's search bar have the power to influence voter decisions, is it time for government oversight? That's what Dries Buytaert, creator of Drupal and co-founder of Acquia, is proposing: an "FDA for data and algorithms." The move would aim to boost transparency, but it also raises tough questions. What exactly would such an agency be tasked with monitoring, and what would its penalties look like? Would it wield too much power, pushing the U.S. closer to China levels of information control? Buytaert is pitching the idea as part of a broader push for a more open Web that reduces the dominance of a handful of platforms.

Comments

Which government?

[tomhath]

What country, or state, or city gets to decide truth? The entire proposition is absurd; people need to be educated to understand that all media outlets are biased rather than trying to have some government agency decide what bias is acceptable.

Re:Which government?

[Anonymous Coward]

>all media outlets are biased

Well, that's clearly false. I turned on fox news today, and they were saying exactly what I was thinking, so they're obvious right, and not biased like those pinko networks.

Re:Which government?

[cayenne8]

For the guy in the articles ideas he promotes..

I say "Please, prepare him and the horse he rode in on, for a possibly painful procedure.

Seriously...we do NOT need to go here with govt. oversight.

We're not looking for information control

[fredrated]

We're looking for disinformation control.

Re:We're not looking for information control

[Impy the Impiuos Imp]

That's called the First Amendment. The People have wisely decided long ago this is the proper way to deal with this, and not to authorize government to be the arbiter of truth and falsehood.

Re:We're not looking for information control

[Archangel Michael]

The problem with Freedom is that it is often messy. Freedom of speech means people can say just about anything they want, including spewing hate and falsehoods.

Any proposal that would restrict Liberty on the basis that it is messy, is walking the line towards tyranny. All those "do it to protect the children" style arguments are exactly the same reasoning. The base assumption is that people cannot adequately protect themselves from the mess. Regardless of the merits, it is a bad idea, because there is no end to how much "mess" is going to be allowed, leaving no messes (Liberty) and a strict regimented government controlled life of meaningless order.

Really?

[rickb928]

"Buytaert is pitching the idea as part of a broader push for a more open Web that reduces the dominance of a handful of platforms."

So, to state this plainly, the plan is to get the government involved to make the marketplace more open to other competitors.

Sure, that's gonna work out real well. Morons.

Re:Really?

[Kohath]

"Buytaert is pitching the idea as part of a broader push for a more open Web that reduces the dominance of a handful of platforms."

Because the handful of dominant platforms would never, ever have any influence on policy. Why would government regulators listen to a small number of well-recognized experts when they could listen to hundreds of chattering upstarts?

The idea that government regulators will protect us from "the dominant few" is very common and tragically naive. Why do people keep falling for this?

A precedent for the "FDA for Data"

[Misagon]

The "FDA for Data and Algorithms" sounds a lot like the Data Inspection Board that we have in Sweden.

Every organisation over here (corp or non-profit) that keeps a record of personal information needs to be approved and registered with the agency. The agency performs inspections to see that the organisations comply with current laws.

as long as we are floating ideas...

[Gravis Zero]

how about securing Drupal's codebase before releasing it?

my lawn: get off it!

Re:as long as we are floating ideas...

[93 Escort Wagon]

how about securing Drupal's codebase before releasing it?

Yeah, this was exactly my thought as well. Given the number of core Drupal bugs that've been rated "critical" this past 12-18 months... maybe this guy should spend less of his free time daydreaming about new agencies and instead start doing some code review.

Newspapers rule....

[peterofoz]

Years ago, before Google and Facebook, before the internet, before email, before faxes, before television, before radio, there were newspaper empires that had total control over the news and strongly influenced voter decisions in politics. So what's different?

Ministry of Truth

[somenickname]

I like the idea. I propose we call it the Ministry of Truth.

Re:Not unprecedented

[Impy the Impiuos Imp]

It's just for broadcast anyway, which just hamstrings the major networks in an age of not just cable but of post-cable channel distribution. It survives under the fiction of limited radio bandwidth therefore government gets to regulate content in the Name of The People when The People obviously don't want government controlling speech, hence the First Amendment.