Posts tagged regulation
Internet giants say no to regulation. A good deal for marketers?
May 27th
The leaders of Facebook, Google and other technology companies have warned G8 leaders to tread carefully in attempting to police the web. Is this a simple power grab from the most powerful people in marketing?
This year marks the first time the technology sector has been represented at the meeting of the G8 group of leading nations. And our internet giants took full advantage.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg along with Google’s executive founder Eric Schmidt said that mooted rules on copyright or privacy could “stymie innovation” and inhibit the free expression that fuelled the recent Arab uprisings.
The pair joined forces to resist proposed new rules to “civilise” the internet, championed by French president Nicolas Sarkozy, at the Deauville e-G8 summit.
Sarkozy told the executives to support greater rule of law on the web in such a way that innovation would not be harmed.
Earlier in the week he warned of the “anarchy” of the internet in its current form, telling the e-G8 Forum in Paris on Tuesday: “You cannot escape a minimum set of rules.”
The discussion comes as governments in the US and UK consider new schemes to force internet companies to block websites that facilitate online piracy.
But measures to combat perceived pitfalls of the online world, such as illegal downloading of copyrighted material, could have unintended consequences according to Zuckerberg.
He said, “On the one hand you have the internet which is this really powerful force for giving people a voice. Now it’s tempting to say that on security or privacy you can go towards the most extreme option and maintain all the value that we currently recognise. I’m worried personally that’s not true.”
Schmidt added that his main worry is that “premature regulation” could shut off whole new industries, whole new opportunities and whole new innovations.
Could that be true? Sounds like a case of the school yard bullies ganging up on the teacher?
When two of the most influential people in the internet and online business start throwing their weight around to get their own way, alarm bells ring.
Are they legitimate about their concerns…or interested protecting their fortune and databases?
Does digital marketing really make kids turn to booze?
Oct 27th
The Portman Group, an industry body that works with drinks producers to raise standards of alcohol marketing, has published a guide that aims to stop alcohol brands targeting underage consumers or encouraging harmful drinking through their digital marketing. This is interesting to me for a number of reasons:
Firstly, please answer this question: Have you ever been encouraged to drink alcohol based on something you saw on the internet?
While there may be some out there that say yes, I suspect the vast majority would say no.
My second point is that when you are a teenager, or indeed ‘under age’, you drink whatever you can get your hands on. Brands that have enough money in the marketing budgets to advertise are often too expensive for teenagers that live of a wage of pocket money from their parents.
But I don’t want to criticize the good deed the Portman Group is doing. It is challenging companies to be socially responsible after all.
I think however, that it is interesting how the internet has led to further concerns over underage drinking.
Recent Comments