Latest / Best of Business / Francesca Rudkin: Why is the Government dragging its feet on regulating big tech?

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Francesca Rudkin: Why is the Government dragging its feet on regulating big tech? · Best of Business

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from newstalk st B. Follow
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• 0:16
  Speaker 2: Yesterday, an article with Stuff owner and CEO SHINEI Bulcher
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: was released on their website. It was a wide ranging
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  Speaker 2: interview and included discussion about the significant impact the big
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: tech companies such as Google and Meta and TikTok are
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  Speaker 2: having on traditional New Zealand owned media companies. These platforms
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: attract the vast majority of New Zealand's digital advertising spend,
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  Speaker 2: but due to a lack of regulation, they avoid paying
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: a meaningful tax bill in New Zealand. And of course,
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  Speaker 2: this is calling for local media companies who invest in
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  Speaker 2: journalism and content only to watch big tech scrape, crawl,
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  Speaker 2: and extract and regurgitate this content for their own gain.
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  Speaker 2: So we've all seen the result of this disruption. Local newspapers,
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: television broadcasters, and online news outlets have experienced declining revenues,
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: leading to newsroom closures and job losses. But we can't
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  Speaker 2: blame big tech entirely for the challenges facing traditional media.
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  Speaker 2: Consumer habits have shifted towards digital platforms, and local media
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  Speaker 2: companies have struggled to adapt to audience expectations and preferences.
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  Speaker 2: The government should have a legitimate and important role to
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  Speaker 2: play in all of this, but they are nowhere to
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  Speaker 2: be seen. There could be regulating big They could be
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  Speaker 2: regulating big tech to create a fairer and competitive digital
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  Speaker 2: marketplace and to protect the public interest by maintaining a
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  Speaker 2: strong independent media sector which supports democracy and form a
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  Speaker 2: public debate. So why is the government continuing to drag
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  Speaker 2: its feet when it comes to anything to do with
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  Speaker 2: big tech, be it social media bands, criminalizing deep fakes,
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  Speaker 2: requiring digital platforms to negotiate payments for news content, or
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  Speaker 2: making them pay an appropriate amount of tax. Is it
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  Speaker 2: too hard or too complex? Is there a lack of
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: interest or is it self serving? Boucher shared some concerning
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  Speaker 2: interactions she's had from politicians.
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  Speaker 3: Actual things that politicians have said to me in the
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  Speaker 3: last sort of year. You know one of who one said,
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  Speaker 3: if you were nicer to us, maybe we would care
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  Speaker 3: if you lived or died. One of them says, we
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  Speaker 3: effectively weighed up the interests of you and big tech
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  Speaker 3: and decided they were more important to the country.
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  Speaker 2: Boucher also claimed politicians today are thinner skinned than they
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  Speaker 2: used to be, which they quite possibly are. If you
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  Speaker 2: can't handle scrutiny, I'm not sure you're in the right job.
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  Speaker 2: But after watching scrutiny week in Parliament, I would suggest
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  Speaker 2: politicians are as brutal to their colleagues as the media
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  Speaker 2: can be to them. I've had politicians complain to me
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  Speaker 2: about a media organization or an individual journalist before, but
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  Speaker 2: there's always been an understanding that democracy requires the fourth estate,
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  Speaker 2: and that where there are politicians, that will be media
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  Speaker 2: and vice versa. I'm giving politicians the benefit of the
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  Speaker 2: doubt that they're not so petty as to allow the
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  Speaker 2: demise of democracy because of their own fears, self interest
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  Speaker 2: and adeques and adequacies. How ironic that I can't say
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  Speaker 2: that word, but it still begs the question. With all
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: its social harm misinformation, disinformation scams, deep fakes, AI slop
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  Speaker 2: and disregard for suppression. Why is the New Zealand government
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  Speaker 2: so scared of making a move against big tech? Unfortunately,
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  Speaker 2: I suspect it's a clear sign of who wears the
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  Speaker 2: pants in the relationship.
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