MIT Sloan Management Review Article on With Great Platforms Comes Great Responsibility

The openness provided by Facebook, Twitter, Google, and other leading digital platforms is working against them and their users. Everyone – including the companies that created these platforms – needs to find ways to fight against their malicious use.

As the probe into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election continues, Americans already have a first look into the breadth and depth of the campaign against our democracy and just how effectively Russian influencers were able to wield our most popular technology and social media platforms against us. The reports of how they leased virtualized computing infrastructure and services based in the United States to rapidly scale their capabilities and mask the real geographical origin of their attacks and how they made ruthlessly efficient use of social media platforms shows that the convergence of digital platforms with politics has taken a new and alarming turn. So, what is the proper response by the companies that design and deliver these powerful platforms? And how should we, the people of the United States, react and change?