The Political Addiction to Blaming Big Tech
From OpenAI's ChatGPT in Tumbler Ridge to Mark Zuckerberg's Meta Platforms in California courtrooms, a global political narrative has emerged that frames technology giants as social and moral scourges. This phenomenon represents what some observers call a political addiction to blaming Big Tech for societal ills.
Meta's Landmark Court Appearance
Meta's billionaire CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently endured another fifteen minutes of unwanted media attention during what has been described as a landmark jury trial in Los Angeles. The case centers on whether social media platforms cause addiction in children, with Zuckerberg testifying that while his company designs sites to attract users, there was never any intentional effort to foster addictive behavior among youth or any other demographic.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier told ABC News that the Los Angeles Meta trial demonstrates the need to "see Big Tech held accountable for intentionally making these social media apps addicting, especially for children." This sentiment reflects a broader political repertoire that has become standard across both the United States and Canada.
The Problem of Definition
The words "addicting" and "addicted" are frequently thrown around in these discussions with little precision regarding their actual meaning in either common usage or legal contexts. Webster's dictionary cites a recent Condé Nast magazine article that describes "an addictive plate of flatbread with honey, ricotta, and grapes" as an example of everyday usage—hardly material for courtroom proceedings.
Legal definitions in the United States typically focus on traditional forms of drug addiction. According to Cornell Law School, an addict is "any individual who habitually uses any narcotic drug so as to endanger the public morals, health, safety, or welfare, or who is so far addicted to the use of narcotic drugs as to have lost the power of self-control with reference to his addiction." This definition bears little resemblance to concerns about social media usage.
Canadian Political Responses
Among what some might call the Canadian political addicts to this narrative is Ottawa's Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation, Evan Solomon. When news emerged last week about a connection between British Columbia's Tumbler Ridge murders and ChatGPT—the chatbot operated by tech giant OpenAI—Solomon quickly seized the opportunity to demand accountability.
OpenAI had banned the shooter in the Tumbler Ridge massacre from its ChatGPT platform last June, presumably due to violent comments, but did not report this action to the RCMP or other Canadian officials at the time. Solomon promptly summoned OpenAI representatives to Ottawa for explanations, demonstrating the political reflex to attribute responsibility to technology companies.
The Evidence Question
Whether habitual logging into platforms like Instagram, TikTok, X, or ChatGPT should be legally classified as addictive behavior remains undetermined. One significant reason for this uncertainty is the lack of conclusive evidence that fixation on social media alone can cause destructive mental and other health problems comparable to traditional addictions.
There is, however, reason to suspect that intense concern about social media correlates strongly with political behavior that portrays Big Tech as what some have called "the cocaine of our time." The political movements to pin wrongdoing on technology executives often display what might be described as twitching reactions to any negative news involving major tech companies.
This political addiction to blaming technology giants represents a complex intersection of legitimate concerns about digital platforms, legal definitions of addiction, and political strategies that increasingly target large technology corporations as convenient scapegoats for broader societal challenges.
