LThe European Commission adopted in October 2023 a new roadmap to combat drug trafficking and organised crime, one of the most serious threats to the security of the European Union.
For obvious reasons, European Union (EU) policymakers did not invite cartel members to participate in the design and development of this strategy: seeking the opinion of criminal networks would only have made it easier for them to continue their activities with impunity.
But when it comes to regulating digital transformation and artificial intelligence (AI), both of which pose myriad risks, policymakers are doing the opposite. They collaborate with big tech companies like Meta (Facebook), Alphabet (Google), Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft, even though their leaders have demonstrated a brazen willingness to create dangerous tools and harm users in the name of maximizing profits.
Complex threats
For example, “working groups”, ” expert groups » and national, regional and international “advisory councils” including representatives of Big Tech are preparing proposals to regulate digital transformation and artificial intelligence. In addition, some initiatives and conferences on this topic are funded by the very companies they aim to regulate.
THE threats posed by digital systems are complex and far-reaching. New technologies dig significantly increasing inequality in the world, and technology giants have becomehuge energy consumerswhich has serious implications for climate change and the environment.
Perhaps most worrying are the near-constant violations of privacy rights due to lack of data security or protection against surveillance. collection large amounts of data and selling them to the highest bidder are common practice in the industry. As a result, digital platforms seem to know us better than we know ourselves, and online life is awash with economic and political manipulation.
Moreover, algorithmic manipulation and disinformation have already been shown to threaten the proper functioning of democracy. Before the 2016 presidential election in the United States, for example, the political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica collected information on no fewer than 87 million Facebook users in order to influence voters. The company and its subsidiaries had already, in a similar way, misused data to try to influence the Brexit vote in the United Kingdom.
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Source: Lemonde
