London Mayor says tech companies and regulators had failed
LONDON Mayor Sadiq Khan shared death threats he received on Twitter to add a personal note to a speech at South by Southwest criticising big tech companies and regulators for failing to stem the spread of hate, misinformation and radical viewpoints online.
Khan had keynote billing last Monday at the tech and culture conference running in Austin. The mayor said that governments have been in “dereliction of duty” when it comes to passing regulations to combat the ways technology has negatively impacted society. He specifically pointed to the way that technology has been used to tamper with elections, spread false information and further polarise public discourse.
“One of the biggest problems over the last few years is that politicians and governments have just been passive - sitting on their hands - while the tech revolution has happened around them,” Khan said in his remarks, which were live- streamed on Facebook.
Ultimately, he said, it’s up to governments - including at the city level - to work with technology businesses and leaders to make sure that technological advancement has the proper checks. He drew parallels to the way governments dealt with the first Industrial Revolution, which prompted new laws such as labor reforms to deal with the way technology and a move toward factory work upended the world’s previously agrarian society.
“Rather than blaming companies for innovating ahead of regulation, politicians must fix things when the regulation is out of date,” he said.
While Khan aimed his most pointed criticisms at his fellow lawmakers, he still called on companies such as Facebook and Twitter to deal more quickly with bad content on their networks.
Khan is known for being probusiness and pro-tech. He has lobbied heavily to make London a world technology hub. Like President Donald Trump - with whom he has had a number of Twitter spats - Khan is very active on social media. ( In his speech, Khan said that he hoped his speech would not generate new tweets from Washington D.C.)
But as a progressive politician and London’s first Muslim mayor, Khan has been a target of right-wing criticism, in person and online. In a key part of his address, Khan shared for the first time a half- dozen personal attacks he’s fielded on social media.
“‘I’d pay for someone to execute Sadiq Khan,’ “he read, quoting a message representative of the “loads” of comments he said he sees every day. Other harassers also called for him to be killed, referred to Khan as a terrorist or called to have all Muslims deported to “make London white again.” He said that he shared this personal abuse to ask what effect this sort of rhetoric has on people, particularly young men and women.