Resolutions for 2019 that the tech industry should really consider

We’re barely 24 hours into 2019, and some of the tech industry is already re-trodding or doubling down on the the blunders, bad looks, and irresponsible policy of 2018. Sadly, we did not leave milquetoast PR statements and broken promises in the past where they belong.

But guys, it’s never too late to change! Let 2019 ring in the New You (even if that idea, for us flawed humans, is mostly BS).

As tech employees, their bosses, and the pundits (like me) shuffle back into work today, here are a few resolutions we hope the tech brass really, really considers. We make these suggestions not just to criticize, but in the hopes that tech actually can be a force for good — as long as the industry holds itself accountable to its own (not even that) lofty standards.

Happy new year!

1. Stop complying with fascist governments

On Jan. 1, the Financial Times reported that Netflix had pulled an episode of comedian Hasan Minhaj’s show Patriot Act in Saudi Arabia. The first day of 2019 showed that, like Google, Apple, Microsoft, and many more, tech power player Netflix chose to meet the censorship demands of an authoritarian regime, rather than uphold its own self-ascribed value of artistic freedom.

In the episode, Minhaj skewers the Saudi government — and the United States’ hum drum response to its crimes — including the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and the war in Yemen. Minhaj also called out Saudi Arabia’s massive financial interests in Silicon Valley, including in Uber, Slack, and more.

Netflix reportedly pulled the episode following complaints by the Saudi government. Under a Saudi law that basically justifies censorship of anything whatsoever, Netflix said it was just complying with local law; for anyone keeping track, that’s the tech industry equivalent of “I was just following orders.”

“We strongly support artistic freedom and removed this episode only in Saudi Arabia after we had received a valid legal request — and to comply with local law,” Netflix told NPR.

Netflix’s move followed a year of fascist-assisting backslides in the tech world. In 2018, the Intercept reported that Google was working on a search engine for China that would comply with local censorship laws — reversing its 2010 decision to pull out of China because of censorship. But Google was not the only company to aid what a 2018 report from the organization and think-tank Freedom House has called “The rise of digital authoritarianism.”

By removing apps, access to information, and even walling off individuals from the censored internet in China, Uganda, Tanzania, Vietnam, and other countries, Silicon Valley has helped authoritarian governments gain tighter control of their citizens by restricting the flow of information.

Tech companies need to do business in companies with far from perfect human rights records to make money. But tech also holds itself to a higher standard, often claiming to be companies with values that attempt to do good in the world. So for 2019, more of the tech industry should resolve to stop citing “following the law” over the values they themselves claim to espouse. 

2. Get a handle on the content moderation shit-show

Another lovely Jan. 1 report (from TechCrunch) showed how hackers exploit a Twitter vulnerability to spread Islamic state propaganda. That followed the Dec. 27 New York Times article on Facebook’s disorganized global content moderation efforts.

Last year saw many tech industry policy changes and stated commitments to detox the web from hate and propaganda through proactive screening and AI. However, both of these recent reports show that much of tech companies’ efforts to remove harmful content still amount to reactive measures. In 2019, strive to own and learn from these mistakes, close the loopholes, and do better. The stakes are too high to allow propaganda to languish online.

3. Follow through on your own rules

Call it a meta-resolution. If tech companies abided by the rules they themselves set up, the internet might be a much better place.

In 2018, many tech companies followed through on rules they had set on hate speech and other content violations, kicking many prominent figures off of social media. 

However, a little reported story from the end of Jan. shows they have a far way to go. 

In mid-December, YouTube banned Proud Boys leader Gavin McInnes. Many lauded this move, since YouTube is a particularly harmful avenue for spreading propaganda and radicalizing the impressionable. But what many of the initial reports missed was that McInnes was able to come back online just two days later. 

YouTube did not ban McInnes for his and his group’s well-documented use of hate speech and incitements to violence, which break YouTube’s own rules. Instead, he was booted because of copyright violations. Once McInnes fixed the violations, YouTube gave him the green light for misogyny once more.

Experts recently told me that this is characteristic of the tech industry’s approach to clamping down on rule breakers. Its application of its own rules are diffuse, and often only followed through on after public outrage. 

Tech companies are incredibly powerful arbiters of speech and change. Like any diet or vow to exercise for the new year, if these companies enforced their own rules in 2019, the internet might have a chance of getting in shape.