(Subscribe to CNBC Pro to watch the full interview with Jeff Lawson, CEO of Twilio.)
The US government should consider regulating social media algorithms that control “what we as consumers see and read every day,” said Jeff Lawson, CEO of Twilio in an interview with CNBC.
Twilio is one of many major US tech companies that has cracked down on the removal of content and applications that promote violence in the wake of last week’s uprising in the US capital. Lawson confirmed on Tuesday that Twilio told popular conservative social media application Parler that it “violated our terms of service,” which led to Parler ending its integration with Twilio.
“I think our heads of government should try to understand the role of algorithmic systems in driving what we as consumers see and read every day, because I think this is uncharted territory for how technology affects individuals down to the societal level,” Lawson told CNBC’s “A View from the Top.”
“Government officials should try to understand how algorithms work and what they optimize for and what their societal impact is? Because that’s the biggest external factor you see today in some of the technology that society hasn’t figured out what to do with.” I think its impact is quite significant. “
Amazon Web Services, Zendesk and Okta joined Twilio in recent days to acquire their services from Parler. There has been a significant shift in recent days among tech companies in removing speech that provides insight into violence, including Twitter’s permanent ban on US President Donald Trump. Still, any future government intervention, regulation, or potential laws of Congress regarding how to combat hate speech and disinformation will need to be ironed out in President-elect Joe Biden’s administration, which begins next week.
Lawson has publicly supported and donated Biden to his presidential campaign to defeat Donald Trump. He told CNBC Biden’s focus on science and policy, and away from tribalism, will be a welcome change for the US.
Lawson rejected the idea that certain technology companies would take on customers based on politics.
“What we’re talking about here is hate speech and murder threats,” Lawson said on CNBC’s Squawk Box. “That is not the normal public speech that we are used to in our society. These are marginal things. What we are trying to say is that the vast minority of people who engaged in marginal talk of hate speech and murder and overthrowing governments, that is. is what’s not allowed. I’m pretty sure most rational people would agree that that kind of content, most of which is illegal, shouldn’t be part of mainstream services. “
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