Danielle Small is a writer and strategist with a few awards under her belt. She has covered numerous industries and has worked with VC-funded startups, nonprofits, and international companies, including Google, AT&T, and Lincoln Motor Company.

In March 2018, when news broke that Cambridge Analytica had amassed the personal data of over 50 million unknowing Facebook users (with that figure later revealed to be as high as 87 million), privacy concerns about the social network shot to the forefront of international conversation. This scandal was no ordinary breach – because Cambridge Analytica did political consulting work for Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, it was directly tied to one of the most polarising political events in recent years. 

For many, the scandal confirmed a hunch that the company’s dealings in ‘friendship’ and ‘likes’ were not altogether innocent. Indeed, trust in Facebook had already been declining, with a 2017 survey by Quartz finding that just 21% of its readers trusted the company with their personal data, compared to 46% who said the same of Amazon, and 42% for Google. 

While it remains to be seen exactly what impact Cambridge Analytica’s access to Facebook’s data had on political events, what matters to millions of users is that the company violated their trust, compounded with the fact that it had been aware of the breach for two years before acknowledging it. What’s clear is how the scandal validates the growing cynicism toward big tech, with widespread concerns about how much access and control digital companies have over people’s personal lives.

A decade ago, the internet and its associated platforms presented new hope for a more connected world and a more democratised future. There was so much optimism for the web and tech companies that the US State Department committed to funding social networks all over the world, framing the directive as an extension of democracy. 

 At the time, the average tech user wouldn’t have thought twice about how much about how much intimate data they gave a tech company in exchange for the chance to connect with friends, share photos, or order items straight to their doorstep. It was that blanket trust that allowed certain firms to grow into the globally influential behemoths they are today.

From Facebook to Google, many of the companies that comprise ‘big tech’ have woven themselves into the fabric of people’s lives and have, in a sense, delivered on the optimism that the internet would create a better connected, more instantaneous and informed world. But over the years, they’ve also been embroiled in countless data breaches, sexual harassment cases, racial incidents, data manipulations, and privacy violations. Yahoo has had so many data breaches that they’re listed on a dedicated 

. Following several paradigm-shifting events from 2016 onwards – such as Facebook’s role in stirring hatred against the Rohingya in Myanmar, Uber’s continuous exploitation of precariat workers, and ongoing questions about ‘fake news’ – people are questioning their relationships with the companies that helped form the internet as we know it today. 

Facebook is the most widely used social media platform globally, boasting over 2.1 billion active users, but it’s also the most widely distrusted.

 A study carried out in 2017 found that 59% of people think Facebook will have a net negative effect on society in ten years, compared to 11% who think the same of Amazon and just 4% of Google. 

 So, it’s no wonder that #DeleteFacebook trended worldwide in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, especially given the concerns around fake news that spread following the 2016 US election. According to the 2018 Edelman Trust Barometer, nearly 70% of global respondents are worried about the use of fake news as a weapon, with 63% saying they don’t know how to tell good journalism from rumours and falsehoods. As a result, 59% are no longer sure what is true and what is not – destabilising their trust in media as a whole. 

Hacks, leaks and ethical oversights have people souring on big tech

Edelman’s report also revealed that the media has become the least trusted institution. This is partly because users define both platforms 

content as ‘media’, with 48% of them attaching ‘social media’ to their idea of ‘the media institution’. Between 2017 and 2018, trust in social media channels and search platforms fell by 11 percentage points in the US, where the effects of fake news are most publicised and documented – the steepest decline globally. 

This chaos has subsequently affected how people place their trust in each other. While the 2017 Edelman Trust Barometer saw expert credibility drop across the board, the 2018 report saw their ratings bounce back. Instead, as the spread of misinformation is understood to take place via sharing, trust in individuals is declining. Just 54% of people say they trust a ‘person like themselves’, dropping six points from 2017. 

 The effects are widespread, with more than one expert attaching this destabilisation to the pervasive sense of anxiety many people experience on a daily basis.

The people whose job is to protect users are fighting an uphill battle against the people whose job is to make money for the company

“The most effective forms of censorship today involve meddling with trust and attention, not muzzling speech itself,” writes tech theorist Zeynep Tufecki for 

 “As a result, they don’t look much like the old forms of censorship at all. They look like viral or coordinated harassment campaigns, which harness the dynamics of viral outrage to impose an unbearable and disproportionate cost on the act of speaking out. They look like epidemics of disinformation, meant to undercut the credibility of valid information sources. They look like bot-fueled campaigns of trolling and distraction, or piecemeal leaks of hacked materials, meant to swamp the attention of traditional media.”

It’s becoming clear that Silicon Valley companies are not merely free agents dealing in screen-based leisure. Because of their intimacy, global reach, and immediacy, Facebook, Twitter, and Google all have the capacity to disseminate what appears to be ‘truth’. And with Facebook, Amazon, and Alphabet each worth over $500 billion in market value – more than the GDP of some countries – they have the ability to cause massive shifts in political and societal power. 

 But for many people, their corporate social responsibility is yet to catch up to their influence.

Trust is in short supply on social media networks

To understand how the public has gone from being awed by the possibilities of big tech to disappointment and distrust, we need to look at tech culture and how it moulds business practices. “It really goes to the heart of a company’s culture and how a company designs products for its customers,” explains Jess Sand, a UX and content strategist who has worked with tech companies and nonprofits. “At the end of the day, the problems that you are trying to solve are really the same and they boil down to ‘how do you marry the company’s business goals with the user’s goals?’ But if you don’t communicate that properly, if you don’t tell users why you’re asking for that information or what you’re going to do with it, then you’re not going to be able to establish that trust. It’s basically shooting yourself in the foot.” 

Up until recently, tech companies have been too slow to realise the ways their products and services can be used maliciously. “There’s been a working assumption over the past probably 20 to 25 years... that technology is going to be used for good. I think that comes back to kind of a naivete around the technology we’re creating and what that can be used for,” says Paul McAleer, a designer, information architect, and speaker who has worked with numerous companies to create better digital experiences for their users. “When we’re designing things and making things, we really have to account for the so-called ‘bad use cases’ – if people are going to use this for ‘evil’ or for a purpose that we’re not intending.” 

profile of Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg that was published before the Cambridge Analytica scandal, Nicholas Thompson and Fred Vogelsteinshare the idea that the social network is only just waking up to its malicious potential, referring to it as “a company, and a CEO, whose techno-optimism has been crushed as they’ve learned the myriad of ways their platform can be used for ill.” 

How can Facebook and Google be held more accountable?

People have gone from ambivalence towards tech companies to realising that their scale and power makes them potentially dangerous, and in the wake of numerous data breaches, they’re uncertain if these firms are capable of policing themselves. “The people whose job is to protect the user always are fighting an uphill battle against the people whose job is to make money for the company,” says Sandy Parakilas, an advisor at the Center for Humane Technology. 

 Consequently, there have been calls for more regulation of the tech industry and a proposal for a digital protection agency to keep it in check. 

 – legislated in Europe, but affecting global businesses – means that companies will need to comply with new rules and legislation around ethical data use.

But these reforms mean little if action doesn’t take place from the inside. “One problem is fake news. The other problem is the lack of incentive for social media companies to robustly investigate fake news,” writes TechCrunch reporter Natasha Lomas. 

 A key takeaway from response to various data scandals is that they want transparency in how their personal information is being used and how at risk it is to malicious manipulation. Brands can accomplish this by introducing safeguards to minimise data risk, and they can make it easy to understand their privacy guidelines so that users know exactly what they’re signing up for when they give a company their information. Some businesses are turning to third party security providers, such as 

, to ensure they’re meeting expectations of protection and trust.

People want big tech to take responsibility for the social fabric it continues to weave. “​As one of the earliest, and first, female investors in Twitter, I had great hopes for its potential to improve human connectedness and relationships,” writes Silicon Valley investor Susan Wu for 

. “Today, it’s become clear it’s done the opposite – by becoming a thunderously divisive tool weaponised by the leader of the free world.” 

 In a sense, calls for big tech firms to clean up their act are in line with 

 for all companies to take responsibility for how their actions affect the world. People want the good intentions that underpinned big tech’s creation to be bolstered by an acute awareness of its effects on society – with responsible action taken by decision-makers and possibly enforced by new regulations.

Jess Sand is a UX and content strategist with a decade-plus history in translating good ideas into great experiences.

Paul McAleer is a designer, writer, and information architect with 33 years of experience in technology and design. As the UX director at Bounteous, he works with teams to create experiences that flow naturally between devices and channels while keeping people at the heart of it all.

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'Trust in Big Tech takes major hit from Facebook breach', Canvas8

'Survey: Facebook is the big tech company that people trust least', Quartz

'Remarks on internet freedom', US Department of State

'UN: Facebook had a 'role' in Rohingya genocide', Al Jazeera

'‘Sometimes you don’t feel human’ – how the gig economy chews up and spits out millennials', The Guardian

'It's the (democracy-poisoning) golden age of free speech', Wired

'Most famous social network sites worldwide as of January 2018, ranked by number of active users (in millions)', Statista

'Techlash – Is Facebook doing more harm than good?', Statista

'2018 Edelman Trust Barometer: Global Report', Edelman

'Prozac Nation is now the United States of Xanax', The New York Times

'Facebook and Amazon hit $500 billion milestone', CNN

Interview with Jess Sand conducted by author

Interview with Paul McAleer conducted by author

'Inside the two years that shook Facebook—and the world', Wired

'Facebook exit hints at dissent on handling of Russian trolls', The New York Times

'Silicon Valley has failed to protect our data. Here’s how to fix it', Bloomberg

'Fake news is an existential crisis for social media', TechCrunch

'It’s time for innovators to take responsibility for their creations', Wired

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