Final Word from Monday, December 2, 2019

When Seznam.cz started informing certain clients of its Sklik advertising service in Aug. 2017 that they would be dropped for failing to meet its new code of ethics, the company's top management quickly backtracked. CEO Michal Feix said that the owner and board did not want to be in the position of trying to determine the objectiveness and truthfulness of news servers. The "disinformation" webs were given a reprieve. Now, however, all the parties in the Czech Parliament other than SPD, KSČM and Tricolor have put their name to a letter to the U.S. House of Representatives asking congressmen to apply pressure on Facebook, Twitter and Google to use their algorithms to block advertising to disinformation websites in the CR. What Seznam declined to do on the Czech national level, Czech MPs want done from Menlo Park, San Francisco, Mountain View or Dublin. MPs complain about the power of the U.S. tech giants and then eagerly hand them even more of it. [ Czech Republic technology internet United States California Ireland ]