Prince William says tech giants are putting profit before social values

Prince William and his
wife Catherine.
Neil P. Mockford/Getty
Images

• The Duke of Cambridge Prince William criticised big
  tech for failing to deal with problems like cyberbullying and
  hate-speech profligating on their platforms in a speech at the
  BBC,
  the Telegraph reports.
• The Duke heads up an anti-cyberbullying taskforce, and
  has dealt with companies including Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat,
  YouTube, Apple, and Google, but has found their response to the
  problems at hand frustrating.
• “The noise of shareholders, bottom lines, and profits
  is distracting them from the values that made them so
  successful in the first place,” the Prince said.

Prince William rebuked big tech firms for failing to adequately
respond to problems on their platforms like cyberbullying and
hate-speech,
the Telegraph reports.

In a speech at the BBC ahead of the launch of its KOW app,
designed to prevent children from sending or receiving troubling
material on their devices, William accused the tech industry of
failing to live up to its responsibilities.

The Prince has been leading a taskforce to combat cyberbullying,
but said he has found tech companies including Facebook, Twitter,
Snapchat, Youtube, Apple and Google, unwilling to fully
cooperate.

“What I found very quickly though was that the sector did not
want to own this issue,” he said.

“I heard doubts being cast about the scale of the problem. I was
told that companies were already doing plenty and just needed
more credit for it. I saw denials issued about the prevalence of
young children on some of our most popular platforms. And
crucially I heard over and over again that a collective approach
– across the industry, with charity partners, ISPs, researchers,
and parents – just wouldn’t work,” the Prince added.

He said that he is “worried though that our technology companies
still have a great deal to learn about the responsibilities that
come with their significant power,” saying that on the issues of
fake news, extremism, polarisation, hate speech, trolling, mental
health, privacy, and bullying, “our tech leaders seem to be on
the back foot.”

Read more:

How online hate speech moves from the fringes to the
mainstream

He suggested that tech companies’ self-image is muddying their
perception of the problems at hand. “Their self-image is so
grounded in their positive power for good that they seem unable
to engage in constructive discussion about the social problems
they are creating,” he said.

The drive towards profit, he said, also poses a problem. “The
noise of shareholders, bottom lines, and profits is distracting
them from the values that made them so successful in the first
place.”

The Prince said that he, like many, had been optimistic ad the
advent of social media. But he spelled out the concerns about the
real-world harm these platforms have been seen to facilitate. “We
have seen that the technology that can allow you to develop an
online community around a shared hobby or interest can also be
used to organise violence,” he said.

“The tools that we use to congratulate each other on milestones
and successes can also be used to normalise speech that is filled
with bile and hate,” he added.

He criticised big tech for being, “resigned to a posture with
governments and regulators that will be defined by conflict and
discord,” and urged them to see, “It does not have to be this
way.”

Business Insider has contacted Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat,
Apple, and Google for comment.