(Subscribe to CNBC Pro to see the full interview with Jeff Lawson, CEO of Twilio.)
The U.S. government should consider regulating social media algorithms that “drive what we as consumers see and read every day,” Twilio CEO Jeff Lawson said in an interview with CNBC.
Twilio was one of several major U.S. technology companies that cracked down on the removal of content and applications that promote violence after the U.S. riot in the capital last week. Lawson confirmed on Tuesday that Twilio had told the popular conservative social media application Parler that it was ‘in violation of our terms of service’, which led to Parler terminating his integration with Twilio.
“I think our government leaders should try to understand the role of algorithmic systems to drive what we as consumers see and read every day, because I think this is an unprecedented area for how technology affects individuals to the society level, “Lawson told CNBC’s” A View from the Top. “
“Government officials should try to understand how algorithms work and what they optimize for and what is their social impact? Because that’s the biggest externality you see today in some of the technology that society does not realize what they have to do with it. And I think its impact is quite wide. ‘
Amazon Web Services, Zendesk and Okta have joined Twilio over the past few days to pull their services from Parler. There has been a significant shift among technology companies over the past few days to remove speech that violates insight, including Twitter’s permanent ban on U.S. President Donald Trump. However, future government interference, regulation or potential congressional laws regarding the police of hate speech and disinformation should be ironed out in the election of President Joe Biden, which begins next week.
Lawson publicly supported Biden and donated to his presidential campaign to defeat Donald Trump. He told CNBC Biden’s attention to science and policy, and away from tribalism, would be a welcome change for the US
Lawson rejects the idea that certain technology companies will start accepting customers based on politics.
“What we’re talking about here is hate speech and threats of murder,” Lawson said on CNBC’s Squawk Box. “This is not normal public speech that we are used to in our society. It is incidental. What we are trying to say is that the vast minority of people who engage in hate speech and murder and the overthrow of governments, that is what is not. “I’m pretty sure most rational people agree that the type of content, most of which is illegal, should not be part of the mainstream services.”
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