Day of ‘reckoning’ looms for tech titans: News boss

News Corp chief executive Robert Thomson has commended politicians who are “not merely dazzled by the digital”.

News Corp chief executive Robert Thomson took aim at the tech titans, describing Facebook as a “contemptuous middle finger” to content creators and Amazon book “scammeries” as “noxious weeds”. Picture: Tony Gough

News Corp chief executive Robert Thomson has commended the efforts of politicians and regu­lators who are “not merely dazzled by the digital”, pointing to a “reckoning” for digital platforms.

In an address at the Enders Deloitte Media and Telecoms Conference in London, he took aim at the tech titans, describing Facebook as a “contemptuous middle finger” to content creators and Amazon book “scammeries” as “noxious weeds”.

He said there was a need for change to allow viable business models for creators and to benefit broader society.

“Thankfully, there is indeed a more contemplative crew of contemporary politicians and regu­lators not merely dazzled by the digital or falling for the fashionable — they are able to divine the difference between artificial intelligence and the artifice of intelligence,” Mr Thomson said.

He said creators were “being slain” by distributors such as Facebook and Google. However, he said politicians were now “awake” to the commercial and social impact of the platforms.

“The digital dilemma is the result, in part, of the self-certified idealism of the Silicon Valley and Seattle set; they devoutly believe they are connecting people and informing them, even though some of the connections become conspiracies and the information, at least that which has provenance, has been too often skimmed without concern to intellectual property rights.”