Another excellent major story has appeared in The New York Times. It details the failings of high tech businesses to address the scourge of child sex abuse still images and videos on the internet. The failures of voluntarism are again manifest.
If child safety and security were really embedded in a company’s culture, if it was indeed a top priority, stories like these would simply not be possible. Yet they have been appearing for years.
Truly, when technology companies cannot get this right what confidence does this inspire in their ability to get anything right?
Too many companies appear only to shift when a judge or smart journalists finally nail them. The NYT deserves a medal for giving these journalists, Gabriel Dance and Michael Keller, the space and resources to pursue the story, which they have been doing for a great many months.
The only parallel I can think of in the UK is the support given by The Guardian for Carol Cadwallader’s reporting on Cambridge Analytica and, earlier, on the work done around the Snowden revelations. Why is British journalism in this state? Because high tech businesses have been winning all the advertising revenues that previously supported solid journalism. What you might call an unvirtuous circle.
Historically journalists have been an important pillar of democracy but if tech neuters or reduces the capacity of journalism where does that leave us? Who benefits?
Desiderata 