Former Google CEO calls social networks ‘amplifiers for idiots’

Social media platforms have been under fire for allowing racist and discriminatory messages to spread online

The “excesses” of social media are likely to result in greater regulation of internet platforms in the coming years, says Eric Schmidt, former Google Chief Executive Officer, reports Bloomberg.

Recently, Google was accused in the long-anticipated lawsuit filed of harming competition in internet search and search advertising through distribution agreements and other restrictions that put its search tool front and center whenever consumers browsed the web. 

He argues that the antitrust lawsuit against the search engine giant was uncalled for, however, he does believe that more regulation may be in order for social networks.

Schmidt, is no longer on the board of Google’s parent Alphabet however, still one of its largest shareholders.

Last month, four Republican state attorneys general led by Texas backed President Donald Trump’s push to narrow the ability of social media companies to remove objectionable content and require new transparency rules.

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They argue social media platforms cannot be truly free “unless the participants understand the rules of the forum, and competition is able to provide alternatives when speech restrictions go too far.”

“The context of social networks serving as amplifiers for idiots and crazy people is not what we intended,” Schmidt said at a virtual conference hosted by the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday.

“Unless the industry gets its act together in a really clever way, there will be regulation.”

Google’s YouTube has tried to clamp down misinformation; however, Facebook and Twitter have faced scrutiny from watchdogs for the spread of misinformation and lies about over the last year.

The US Senate Judiciary Committee voted to subpoena the chief executive officers (CEOs) of Facebook and Twitter amid allegations of political bias.

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The decision comes a week after Facebook and Twitter allegedly limited the spread of a news report about Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden's son Hunter.

Social media platforms have been under fire in recent years for allowing racist and discriminatory messages to spread online.

In August, Facebook was battling a public-relations and political crisis after a WSJ report revealed that the social network’s top lobbying executive in India; Ankhi Das opposed applying the company’s hate-speech rules to a politician from the Modi’s party who had in posts called Muslims traitors.

Further, Schmidt says that Google’s massive search business, the target of the US Department of Justice’s antitrust suit, continues to be so successful because people choose it over competitors, not because it uses its size to block smaller rivals.

“I would be careful about these dominance arguments. I just don’t agree with them,” Schmidt said.

“Google’s market share is not 100%.”