TRENDS 2018

Incidence of governments in digital services, mainly social networks

Online advertising, especially that directed to people for political purposes and polarization of public opinion, is not liking the politicians, who until recently spoke of the benefits of social networks and the democratization of the media. But different groups of legislators have changed their minds because of the creation of opinion bubbles, the pursuit of profits at all costs, as well as the exploitation of false news by politicians, destabilizing agents and political propaganda companies.

That is why the guiding principles of the Internet are increasingly being questioned, such as Article 230 of the US Telecommunications Decency Law. For example, senators Klobuchar, Warner and McCain presented the bipartisan project called "Honest Advertising Law" so that the diffusion on the Internet is subject to the "same rules of transparency as television, press and radio announcements". The European Union seeks to ban or limit the micro-targeting of political ads, France prepares its "anti-Fake News law" and every day there are more calls to block the Twitter of world leaders, starting with Donald Trump. In Mexico, the final vote on the reform is expected to consider as an illicit act the dissemination of information that may cause "dishonor, discredit, harm or expose someone to contempt," whose ambiguity can lead to dangerous political use.

It can be anticipated that 2018 will bring regulatory and censorship movements for social networks. However, once again, governments will be reactive to technology, which at the social network level will evolve into larger social communities: social, massive, simultaneous and online communities. These new communities, based on the livestream, will allow millions of strangers to connect to applications and live in cyberspace experiences and simultaneous, interactive and personalized talks.

But while people enjoy these new experiences, governments will have a greater challenge: to begin the reinvention of political economy, diplomacy and governance within the framework of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. For example, every time we will see more countries developing national strategies of Artificial Intelligence and Cybersecurity - both will be key to be relevant at a geopolitical level. And unfortunately, lawmakers and judges do not have a solid knowledge of technology.