A New Proposed Law Could Actually Hold Big Tech Accountable for Its Algorithms

We've seen again and again the harmful, unintended consequences of irresponsibly deployed algorithms: risk assessment tools in the criminal justice system amplifying racial discrimination, false arrests powered by facial recognition, massive environmental costs of server farms, unacknowledged psychological harm from social media interactions, and new, sometimes-insurmountable hurdles in accessing public services. These actual harms are egregious, but what makes the current regime hopeless is that companies are incentivized to remain ignorant (or at least claim they to be) about the harms they expose us to, lest they be found liable. Many of the current ideas for regulating large tech companies won't address this ignorance or the harms it causes. While proposed antitrust laws would reckon with harms emerging from diminished competition in the digital markets, relatively small companies can also have disturbing, far-reaching power to affect our lives. Even if these proposed regulatory tools were to push tech companies away from some harmful practices, researchers, advocates and--critically --communities affected by these practices would still not have sufficient say in all the ways these companies' algorithms shape our lives.