#WebSummit: Nick Clegg Claims Internet Needs Accountability, Not Rules

Speaking as part of the online Web Summit in conversation with John Micklethwait, editor-in-chief of Bloomberg News, former deputy Prime Minister and leader of the Liberal Democrats Nick Clegg said there is a concern where technology is blamed for everything from the results of elections to climate change.

Now VP of global affairs at Facebook, Clegg said the ability to use data at scale “is considered to be suspicious or dodgy” and his conversations with politicians and policy makers globally suggest a “deep seated imprecise antagonism to the idea that data can be held safely, and at scale, to provide free tools.” He claimed that data has to be used in an inventive and ingenious way, as it will be the “lifeblood of medicine, health and education for years to come.”

Speaking on privacy, Micklethwait said there is a need to “grow up with new laws” especially as debates about Section 230 continue and Facebook makes “editorial decisions on what to show.” Clegg said there is a legitimate societal and political debate to be had on the role of technology in society, “and I think Section 230 is one of the things that should be revisited if there is the political consensus to do so in DC.”

Section 230 was passed into law in 1996, and provides immunity from liability for any “provider or user of an interactive computer service” for the content provided by a third party. It has come into focus as US Presi ..

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