Slashdot Mirror
Big Tech and Democracy Need To Work Together, Microsoft Executives Say (axios.com)
From a report: It's not often that Big Tech calls for more government action. But two top Microsoft executives -- Brad Smith, president and chief legal officer, and Carol Ann Browne, director of executive communications -- write in a tech trends forecast out today. "2018 will be a year when democratic governments can either work together to safeguard electoral processes or face a future where democracy is more fragile. [T]his needs to include work to protect campaigns from hacking, address social media issues, ensure the integrity of voting results, and protect vital census processes," they wrote.
Big tech is well established and politically connected now and so naturally they want more regulation that donâ(TM)t add much aggregate cost to them but make it impossible or at best improbable for a âoekid in a garageâ to start something that replaces them.
I wouldn't want Microsoft, or any other software giant for that matter, near my government. As if legalized corruption in form of lobbying wouldn't be enough...
Because that worked out so well THERE....
Seriously though, Big Tech should be as far away from Democracy as possible, but the voting masses also need to take it upon themselves to learn about the benefits and pitfalls of technology sufficiently to make an educated vote on whether they want/need more or less tech in their voting process. There are benefits and pitfalls to each option and they both require massive amounts of manpower to verify that the chain of trust for the vote talling hasn't been breached.
Take your threats elsewhere "big tech". The government (we the people) do not need to work with you for democracy. The government (we the people) will set the terms and if you don't like it then you can do business in another country.
"Democratic governments need to spend their time and resources cracking open the door in closed markets for us to make more money and not pay taxes on."
Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
Only paper ballots can facilitate that. So, if "Big Tech" can make a better crayon, go for it!
As for majority rule hitting the brick wall due to an ignorant and antipathic majority, well, that's something that needs fixing pronto. We still haven't reached the bottom of that trench yet.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
safeguarding our elections.
That makes me feel soooooooo confident.
I wouldn't want Microsoft, or any other software giant for that matter, near my government.
A) They already are involved in the government (or were you under the delusion that governments still run using typewriters and mimeographs?), and B) they could hardly make it worse. Democracies require everyone to be involved to work and that includes big tech companies whether or not you like it.
safeguarding our elections. That makes me feel soooooooo confident.
And who exactly would you prefer be involved? The folks in Florida who gave us hanging chad? Honestly I trust those companies as much or more than I do companies like Diebold.
I understand the hesitation against needless tech influence in elections but we can do without the knee jerk reactions.
In the past I felt that I owned my OS and my programs. Nowadays, it feels like renting a patch from a feudal lord.
I could install the OS on my computer, then on another one. Not anymore, at least not all of them.
Democracy appeared in the Ancient Greece where people owned land of their farms. And only owners could participate in the democracy. So if Big Tech really wants a democracy let them make us owners again.
Trump has proven that we can have both at once.
Support Right To Repair Legislation.
How much credit should "Big Tech" get for Arab Spring, Brexit, Trump? How about the protests going on in Iran right now? Could similar political waves happen in China or North Korea?
Those who want to control what can go on in social media need to be very careful what they wish for; fake news and government propaganda are the same thing.
Every election the American People are forced to choose between the lesser of two evils. 300 million Americans seem to enjoy electing cow shit to battle against horse shit in one hell of a crappy race to the bottom.
Worrying about social media election issues is like arguing over what color to paint a nuclear warhead.
The only thing the big tech companies want is an Oligarchy controlled by them.
The millennial that doesn't like most of the stuff designed for millennials.
>> safeguard electoral processes or face a future where democracy is more fragile
Look around. Nearly all so-called "democratic" governments are already working towards replacing democracy with dictatorship. Doing nothing in this case just speeds up their actual agenda.
It is called lobying. Do they want to cut out the other middleman, the lobyists?
Normally the public should be the middleman. Fun times for the few years they pretended that that actually worked.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
Literally nothing would make Slashdot embrace Microsoft.
Microsoft could meticulously do differently all the things that Slashdot complains about and it still won't be enough. The goalposts wlll contantly move.
Microsoft could have the cure for cancer and Slashdot would still be against them, claiming they are trying to EEE cancer treatment centers.
What we need is to limit the amount of money that any one entity can spend on political causes and require that 100% of funds for Political Action Committees are from donations. This would drastically reduce the amount of political corruption in this country.
That said, websites that are not dedicated to carrying news need to stop carrying news and those that do need to be held accountable for it's accuracy or lack thereof.
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
Like when a town of 3k people has 4.5k votes cast in it. That's about the number in one county that Roy Moore lost in Alabama. That's third world level brazenness in terms of voter fraud in a country that prides itself on the "rule of law." Someone please provide a logical reason why state and federal law enforcement have never gone into places like this and announced that the entire election officiating organization is under criminal investigation. You can't because the reason is really simple: politics.
If you want to "safeguard democracy," I have a really simple suggestion: make any sort of organized voter fraud like this covered under the charge of "attempted overthrow of the United States Government." That's what it is: an attempted bloodless coup against the elected government through voter fraud.
Shouldn't need to legislate to get corporations to do "the right thing."
What will you do when immigrants show up at your door step? What will you do when armed governments make demands?
It's not that I don't love the idea but unless you are willing to gun down the unwashed masses that show up wanting help while also keeping big governments from meddling in your affairs (no clue how that's possible), it won't really work.
Also, if you do try gunning down all the unwashed masses, you'll probably piss off some of the nanny states. Definitely need to pay off all the governments you don't have enough firepower to deter.