Et Tu Spotify?

Big Business, Big Tech, and Irresistible Temptation to Monetize Addiction

In the beginning, there was Google, and Google was good.

The company created products that made life better for billions of people around the planet. The unofficial motto was “don’t be evil.”

But Google’s business model was to sell the actions of users to the highest advertising bidder. The snowball of moral ambiguity rolled downhill until it is now a full-on avalanche crushing the very ideals of the Internet — originally formed on unrestricted sharing of information and unlimited connectivity. We have learned by now that unbridled freedom is never a good idea when humans are involved (think false information on President Trump’s Twitter feed). But most of us would agree the limiting factor for determining which ideas spread and which are withheld should be morality and legality, not profitability.

Whatever its own failings, Google could point to Facebook and claim, rightly, “You think we’re bad? Take a look at those guys!”

While Google was buying and selling our search decisions, Facebook was buying and selling elections…