Big tech tries to dodge any extension of regulation on platforms.

For years, the leaders of Meta, Apple, Google and Microsoft have made a show of calling for internet regulation. We can see in retrospect the bad faith behind these efforts, as some of the richest companies in human history put their colossal lobbying operations to work, ensuring that social media remains a lawless frontier. Just like the tobacco industry a generation ago, tech companies have been using every tool available to them behind the scenes to oppose new laws that would require any measure of accountability. Big Tech’s lobbying groups have poured resources into challenging California’s landmark kids online safety law in federal court, where a misinformed judge issued a poorly-reasoned preliminary injunction last year. I know the playbook these companies have used quite well. Prior to my current job, I was a lobbyist for Amazon. I’ve used the same argument — we support regulation, just not this regulation — and with a similar conspicuous absence of workable alternatives. Having once been on the inside, I can tell you with confidence: The tech companies have fooled us all. Now, these same tech giants are now pushing their latest innovation, artificial intelligence. Just like social media, they’re in a race to scale and irrevocably entangle societies with these new products as quickly as possible in order to achieve market dominance.