Miranda Live: Regulate Facebook and Google before it’s too late warns Kerry Stokes
MORE has to be done to curb the “rapacious appetites” of online powerhouses Facebook and Google or we risk a world run by just two companies, Seven Network CEO Kerry Stokes has warned.
MORE has to be done to curb the “rapacious appetites” of online powerhouses Facebook and Google or we risk a world run by just two companies, Seven Network CEO Kerry Stokes has warned.
The media magnate has taken aim at Facebook and Google, saying he fears data gathering algorithms and retention could prove a real threat to security and personal privacy.
“I cannot believe Facebook is unregulated,” he told Miranda Devine on her online radio show Miranda Live.
“We need to curb the rapacious appetites of Facebook and Google. They’re unregulated, they can apply this data anyway they want. Russia can use it, anyone can use it.”
LISTEN TO THE FULL INTERVIEW:
Mr Stokes last week sat down with Miranda Devine on Miranda Live to talk the future of the media during his Washington DC trip.
Mr Stokes was in the US as part of Australia trade delegation meeting with US President Donald Trump, and described the US leader as “the consummate businessman”.
The Channel 7 boss said last week’s comments by Facebook founder and chairman Mark Zuckerberg about the social media company actively seeking out posts by children that could be considered suicidal were particular disturbing.
“Algorithms will be able to determine suicidal children online? What else are they looking at?” he said.
“Unless there is (regulation) we’ll end up with two organisation that control the thoughts of the world.”
But it’s not all grim tidings for the media.
Mr Stokes said he acknowledged the media landscape was changing, presenting serious challenges to organisations such as the Seven Network and News Corp.
“We are in a state of transition and we need to do things differently and better,” he told Devine.
“I’m one of those still convinced there’s long-life left in newspapers and that the opinion of journalists — qualified journalists, who have done their time — their opinions are worthwhile, there’s a space for that, we can project that and we have a future.
“(That’s why) paywalls are now things of importance.”
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