Trusting Social Media, “Big Tech” to Police Itself. Not.
Fran Lebowitz: I met [Twitter Founder Jack Dorsey], and I told him that [people were impersonating me on Twitter]. And I said, “you have to fix this because it’s not fair that someone pretends to be me, and people are talking to this person or tweeting with them or whatever. And he said, ‘Oh, here’s what you have to do. You have to open a Twitter account called @TheRealFranLebowitz.'”
I said, “Here’s what I have to do?? Do I own Twitter? This is what you have to do!” But of course, as you are aware, that is not what they do, and that, to me, is outrageous.
Kara Swisher: So what happened? What happened then?
Fran Lebowitz: Nothing.
–“Fran Lebowitz Isn’t Buying What Jack Dorsey Is Selling,” Kara Swisher podcast. The New York Times (2/11/2011).
I can certainly relate to Fran Lebowitz’s outrage over her multiple (apparently) Twitter impersonators.
Why should it be her job to police what is fraudulently said in her name on social media?
DIY Copyright, Identity Theft Enforcement
Unfortunately, I can report my own frustrating experience with social media scammers — in particular, a handful of websites that for years have brazenly copied every word I’ve written, with nary so much as a peep from Google, whose search engine continues to direct traffic to the copycat sites.
So yeah, put me (squarely) in the camp that says it’s way past time to rein in these high tech giants through a combination of government oversight and antitrust enforcement.
As Lebowitz succinctly puts it, “any industry that has this huge effect on so many people should be regulated.”
“Amen” to that . . .
P.S.: The country is fortunate to have Minnesota native daughter and U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar leading the antitrust inquiry into Big Tech.
