TikTok ban repeats the tech regulation cobra effect
History shows digital bans don’t eliminate threats; they just reshape them because the real issue is the systems that allow such vulnerabilities to exist in the first place.
When the British ruled India, they tried solving Delhi’s cobra problem by paying people for dead snakes. Instead of fewer cobras, they got snake farms. When the program ended, breeders released their snakes into the streets, leaving Delhi with more cobras than before.
Today’s tech regulators, like those British officials, are falling into what economists named the “cobra effect” – where well-intended solutions breed unintended consequences.
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Whitney Meldrum-Hanna is a brand strategist and former Head of Creative Strategy at Pedestrian Group.
