Yesterday Lesley Smith, a senior British executive for Amazon, was questioned by peers on the House of Lords communications committee, who are considering possibilities for internet regulation. There is a certain absurdity in hearing the Lord Bishop of Chelmsford seek clarity from an online retailer over its exact purple shoe-selling strategy. Yet it was indicative of a growing sense among legislators that a powerful force has escaped proper political scrutiny for far too long. It was the exposure of the political advertising firm Cambridge Analytica that pushed technology finally on to the mainstream political agenda. Notably Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, was asked by the octogenarian senator Orrin Hatch how his company made a profit without charging.

Source: The Times January 09, 2019 00:05 UTC