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LAST THURSDAY, THE market value of Facebook’s newly-renamed parent company Meta dropped by more than $220bn (over €190 billion).
The company and its flagship social network have been central to the building of the modern internet, and more than a third of the world’s population still uses Facebook at least once a month. But despite his leading role in shaping the digital world we all live in, investors are no longer confident that Mark Zuckerberg can predict that world’s future, let alone decide it.
He’s not the only one. The online world is in a state of flux, with new technologies and social networks rising to the fore, and new challenges—both technical and socio-political—cropping up for industry leaders and everyday users alike. Are we, in Ireland and across the EU, ready for those challenges?
Artificial intelligence, virtual reality (or “the metaverse” as Zuckerberg likes to call it), blockchain and cryptocurrency: the evangelists of emerging technologies promise that they will radically transform how we live and work online, and for the better. It’s hard to evaluate such claims; wearable tech like Google Glass largely failed to live up to their hype, but the smartphone was a technological and societal revolution in ways no one could have predicted.
The latest series of innovations is no different, and even the tech’s proponents can’t see the future. A huge crypto crash, hardly the first the market has seen, wiped out $205bn of market value in January. Meta’s overinvestment in virtual reality is thought to be largely responsible for its recent market troubles, as those investments have yet to pay off. And while artificial intelligence is successfully integrated into more and more everyday technology, this frequently has unexpected outcomes and worrying privacy implications.
We don’t yet know which emerging technologies will truly be transformative, and whether those transformations will be universally good. We just know that things are changing, and fast.
Governance
Questions about rights and regulations online have been around since the dawn of the internet, but most remain unresolved. A Rubicon moment for privacy and the real-world impact of social media was the Cambridge Analytica scandal. In 2018 it was revealed that the now-defunct company was mining huge amounts of data from social networks, mostly Facebook, to allow political campaigns to create detailed psychological profiles of voters to use to persuade them.
Four years on, it doesn’t seem that we’ve got a clear answer on what tech companies should be allowed to do, or how governments should enforce the rules that do exist. The stakes are only getting higher, with social media being accused of fuelling ethnic cleansing in places including India and Myanmar via disinformation and incitement to hatred.
Our regulatory tools do not seem to have kept pace with the evolving issues. Ireland’s Data Protection Commission, responsible for much of the Big Tech regulation in Europe, has been repeatedly accused of inefficiency and leniency, and admitted to government in December it is “unfit for purpose”.
On the other hand, a bill currently being considered by the Oireachtas would put regulation of social media, broadcast media and online communication under one combined body, the Media Commission. The legislation would give the watchdog broadly-phrased rules and sweeping powers of enforcement, but critics have said the proposal is a blunt instrument which treats social networks like traditional communication methods or broadcast media, when in reality it’s not quite comparable to either.
Almost everyone agrees that how we’re regulating tech companies right now isn’t working, but no one has a universally-agreeable solution.
Overall, the state of the internet right now is one of uncertainty; there’s a sense we’re living in a pivotal moment, but we can’t yet tell which direction that pivot will take us.
Over the next few weeks, The Good Information Project will seek to assuage some of that uncertainty by exploring the big digital questions of the day; privacy, decentralisation, regulation and much more. Don’t miss it.
We want to hear from you
The Journal launched The Good Information Project with the goal of enlisting readers to take a deep dive with us into key issues impacting Ireland right now.
You can keep up to date by signing up to The Good Information Project newsletter in the box below. If you want to join the discussion, ask questions or share your ideas on this or other topics, you can find our Facebook group here or contact us directly via WhatsApp.
This work is also co-funded by Journal Media and a grant programme from the European Parliament. Any opinions or conclusions expressed in this work is the author’s own. The European Parliament has no involvement in nor responsibility for the editorial content published by the project. For more information, see here.
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shambles
My friend has not being paired since the 23rd of June…
We pay for the bank’s mistake and this is what we get in return !!! Compensation is not even in their agenda, Can’t wait to move bank now !!
I don’t think ulster bank is one of the bailed out banks but I’m open to correction on that.
It has had a bail out but not by our government
We did did nt pay for ulster Bk s mistake
Not being funny Daniel but could you rephrase that, I don’t have the slightest idea what you are trying to say.
If everybody that has an account with ulster bank closed it and moved banks they would get what’s coming to them they’d have to close good riddence
Move to who? Leave this lot because of incompetence and join one of the other lot who are corrupt to the bone? We don’t exactly have a choice here.
Agree with you there James, but this error shows a massive dis-regard for having error-checking and roll-back. Almost worse, imo, is their misinformation, and the length of time this has gone on.
I’m definitely moving to one of the Irish crappy banks once the back-log is completed. Probably moving Bank of Ireland.
Free banking me arse!
Having worked or 30 years in maintaining systems software on most of the large clearing banks, I find it quite unbelievable that a software ‘glitch’ could knock a banking system out for this length of time. Glitches are fixed in a matter of hours and should not affect any banking system with adequate back-up facilities and processes in place to manage software changes. I think it’s time Ulster Bank, RBS and Natwest came clean with what they believe are gullible customers. Dangerous to leave your money in the hands of these incompetents.
We’ve been sold the lie that if the banks go wallop that the sky will fall in and society will grind itself into the dust.
Well, let’s just see what happens when a bank loses all its customers.
Yes, it will go wallop, and life will go on without it.
Banks have forgotten that without customers they amount to nothing.
They badly need a good kicking.
Customers should see an improvement this morning with account balances showing some updates, really, tried logging on and service is temporarily unavailable, Q@A reply was that it must be my software!!!! never ever had an issue logging in before just another lame assed excuse again
I have to agree with Marist. I do not believe for one minute that this is a software glitch. The financial regulator should be doing his job, its clearly more illegal than a technical issue….
I thought they said Direct Debits would be all paid on customers behalf on time?
Not true unfortunately, woke up this morning and my internet service provider had disconnected me! Talk about the last fooking straw! Needless to say I got straight onto the ISP and ate them alive. Had the gall to tell me how where they to know it was a UB d/d. Opened new account yesterday, maybe I might just get paid next week.
All a bunch of lies. Service still the same….that is, unserviceable. Can’t even log in
Managed to login now and guess what!!!! I got a negative balance while yesterday night it was positive as I got funds transferred internally from my savings to my current account to get rid of another negative. Dunno what they are upto. Very suspicious. Once my new tsb account is set up, am defo out of UB. Forget me if I owe you money after you balance everything off in 2 weeks. I’ll take it as my personal compensation for all the hassle I’ve been through.
You’d genuinely have to be some fool to stay banking with Ulster Bank. A bank that doesn’t back up its IT systems, doesn’t adequately test IT fixes first.
I agree 100% but what are my alternatives. My business account is with them due to them having a Visa Debit facility. The only alternative I know of is BOI
What would happen if this was to happen again in the UK during the Olympics?????????
i presume when they say “some” they actually mean the majority of their customers direct debts have not come out. i really do hope that they mean it when they say that no customer Will be out of pocket Aswan result of this but i doubt it Will be that straight forward unfortunately and our credit ratings Will be affected. the companies that the direct debts were supposed to go to Will probably not take “it was the banks fault” as a legitimate excuse…
Got a text message from Meteor saying that service won’t be affected due to the UB crisis. At least a sensible provider.
This will continue for another 6 weeks, mark my words.
Good news, as of yesterday afternoon my salary is showing on my account. This was lodged on the 22nd June. No direct debits taken, paranoid that next time I log in that my balance has disappeared into cyber space. Hopefully these positive updates keep going.This has to be lessons to financial controllers who are trying to downsize to increase their bottom lines for the board, “that your arse will get burnt if you do not bring some kind of practicality into your plans”. I will wait to see how things go, but at the moment in favour of moving my account.
I understand that if you “can” withdraw cash and pay your bills, then as the bank are updating, your direct debits will be paid. This will leave you with double payments and it is up to you to recoup that extra payment. I am holding tight. It would not be good PR if any company tries to put pressure on you during this. Also the media need to report all who try to pressure and profit from the peoples grief. Just my take from what is going on.
it appears that we’re on our own, regulator not doing his job, media not doing a whole pile,oireactas going through the motions… pressure coming from no-where. I’m stuck abroad not able to access cash. What a joke. I’ll be leaving UB as soon as I get back. scary
After 25 years with them I am for the first time thinking about getting away from them ????
This is absolutely annoy and stressful…
This is my third week with no pay as of today. On the plus side my spending is way down. If I didn’t have my credit card and mortgage with them I would be gone already
I need to get money today as no direct debits have been paid & my service providers are close to reaching their limit of understanding with the Ulster Bank debacle so have to try manual payments…..can anyone confirm if the €500 that you can withdraw from the branch is a daily/weekly limit? Have tried phoning help line but can’t get through & their online systems are also down. Thanks in advance!
Is there any limit that they have imposed!!! Actually yesterday I retrieved a grand from account which should have been salary paid in since 2 weeks. Just showed them payslips and ID. Was asked by cashier how much i want to withdraw and i smiled and told told i want ALL. This is my money and I do what I want and place it where I want. Surely not UB anymore.
All direct debits and standing orders have been put on hold, so nothing will come out of your account until it is flagged as up to date. There is no problem taking any amount of money out, if you can prove it went in (ie transfer statement or pay/expense slip). I was able to get €1100 out yesterday to pay a non-UB credit card.nnOn a negative note, the ‘greeter’ in UB was taking a lot of flack from a customer and told her she wouldn’t see the balance until Monday week. Yes, week!nnSo, the world carries on, utilities and bills will be paid or deferred with UB taking the cost, and when you take cash out, make sure you take enough to cover what you would normally spend on laser and withdrawals to cover at least a week. It’s the eighties again for us UB customers – but still cheaper banking and mortgage than any other lender, so no – don’t go leaving to go to one of the corrupt banks after this…
@alien All direct debits etc have been put on hold!!! How can one explain my negative balance after I’ve personally made it positive yesterday!!! This has been the case since 2 weeks. Money going out even when there is no direct debit payment that I was expecting. Curious….
get my salary from the 28th and DD paid in the balance this morning. Same for my wife. didn’t get the child benefit yet.
I stay with them because now their system would be waterproof compared to the other banks however if I have another issue I’ll move my account.
have your say