Tech giants not run by altruistic hippies in jeans - watchdog

BIG tech companies give the impression they are run by altruistic Californian hippies in jeans, but they are really rapacious capitalists, the chairman of the Press Council has warned.

Former diplomat Seán Donlon warned the press in this country faces major threats like never before.

The chairman of the press watchdog said these threats were posed by tech companies such as Facebook, Google, Twitter and YouTube, and the outdated defamation laws.

These social media companies were not subject to any regulation, yet were taking the advertising revenue on which traditional media depended without employing trained journalists.

He said the threat posed by these companies extended beyond what is known as traditional media and to the foundations of democracies

“We all accept their advantages, but we should not overlook what exactly some of them are determined to do or are doing in the course of making enormous amounts of money,” he said.

Mr Donlon was speaking at a meeting of the Association of European Journalists in Dublin.