Japan Stiffens Regulatory On Tech Giants To Guarantee Precision
Recently, Japan has announced it will tighten its regulations. This is to prevent technology giants, including Facebook Inc and Google, from manipulating their market power.
Moreover, the regulation is due to an unfair advantage over insignificant businesses, according to a piece of technology news last Tuesday.
The new law would compel tech giants, containing Google LLC, Apple Inc, Facebook Inc, and Amazon.com Inc to divulge the terms of contracts with customers.
Meanwhile, it has also reported on the government concerning their operations.
Japan’s shift followed the global trend. The move was from the United States to Europe and Australia.
The step was all about tightening the regulatory screws on the online platforms. The policymakers are also struggling to address concerns varying from anti-trust issues to the spread of “fake news” and hate speech.
Google and Facebook have resisted tighter regulation. On the flip side, traditional media owners, involving Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, have backed the reform.
“We want to put the new law into effect in the way that would make business transactions become transparent without imposing excessive burdens or hampering innovation,” Economy Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura said.
He added, “The new law constitutes a framework for ‘platformers’ to make autonomous efforts to maintain transparency and fairness.”
The government will modify the personal information protection law. It is to allow individuals to request digital firms and to suspend the use of their data.
Moreover, the protection law is for the security of personal data.
Evaluation On The Value Of Data
The law currently controls the processing of data collected by illicit means.
On the other side, the Fair-Trade Commission will revise standards. This is to respond to the digital market with regards to the anti-monopoly law.
It is by gauging the value of data when scrutinizing a tie-up of corporations.
Meanwhile, the trade supervisory body will clarify unfair acquisition.
After that, they will use consumers’ personal information on the platform of the companies that are related to abusing their position.
Elsewhere, Facebook said it is investigating a voter engagement app used by the democratic party that is the senior partner in Italy’s coalition government.
Moreover, it is a part of a wider probe into prospective historical data misuse.
An anti-establishment party known as the Five Star Movement (M5S) won the most seats in Italy’s 2018 general election. Way back 2013, it has launched the app.
It is the year of the party’s discovery onto the national stage.
The Attivista 5 Stelle, 5 Star Activist, is an app that invited M5S supporters to complete tasks on Facebook.
There are tasks on the app, such as sharing posts, advocating campaign events, and increasing the party’s logo to profile pictures, in exchange for points.
A Facebook spokesperson indicated that inspection into the app was ongoing. There is nothing at this point to recommend the app’s developers misused data.
