There is always a fundamental tension at the World Economic Forum in Davos about what business does, and what it says. Nowhere is this tension greater than in the conversation around Big Tech, and the challenges that “surveillance capitalism” poses to competition, privacy, and civil liberty, even as it enriches companies in not just the tech sector, but every industry.
During the first full day of WEF programming, there were plenty of official sessions about things such as how to govern data and run digital economies fairly, though they were marked with a techno-optimism that was decidedly out of touch with the public’s concern about the disruptive effects of the digital economy on their jobs and national politics.
According to the Edelman Trust Barometer, released on the first day of the conference, for example, 73 per cent worry about fake news being used as a weapon.