How much damage will be done?

This is an excerpt from a column in The Guardian by Simon Jenkins:

It’s hard to recall the social media of 15 years ago and its offer of universal love, democracy and global peace. Britain’s parliament has finally caught up, and this week’s Commons report is at least unequivocal. A menace stalks the land, and must be curbed.

Some of the report’s accusations are astonishing. Facebook “purposefully obstructed” the committee. Its boss, Mark Zuckerberg, who “continues to choose profit over data security,” held Parliament in contempt. His rambling empire is portrayed as lying, thieving “digital gangsterism”.

So far, so familiar, as are the report’s proposals: the usual comfort blankets of a code of ethics, an independent regulator and “more transparency.” We have sought them for a decade and still not found them. The real question is, why not?

We still await a legal declaration that social media platforms are publishers not “conduits.” That has to be rubbish. Copyright on the internet is where it was for the printed word in the 19th century, which was nowhere until the law caught up.

An EU initiative to declare Europe a regulated zone was mooted some years ago but abandoned, under American pressure, as an offence against freedom. Time moves on. But if finding the right balance is hard, that is no argument for not seeking it.

One thing is for sure. In years to come, the present painful, stumbling, inept steps towards regulating cyberspace will seem laughable. The only question is how much damage will be done before this vast, monopolistic industry is brought to heel.