Microsoft CEO says big tech needs clearer laws on online speech

A Microsoft logo is seen in Los Angeles, California US November 7, 2017. (Reuters-Yonhap)

Microsoft Corp. Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella said social-media services like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube need clearer laws and rules to govern whether controversial “Unilateral action by individual companies in democracies like ours is just not Microsoft doesn’t currently run a consumer social media service, but it is among cloud-computing In the past several years, antitrust regulators have ramped up investigations into the market power of large technology companies, just as Microsoft fell under government scrutiny and faced a US antitrust lawsuit “Big by itself is not bad, but competition is good,”

The need for competition includes rivalry from China, Nadella said, although national security concerns must be reckoned with by each government, Nadella said.

“There is no God-given right for US tech companies to take for granted that there cannot be other tech powers,” he said.

Microsoft shares have surged more than 500% since Nadella took over as CEO seven years ago, after languishing for more than a decade under his predecessors, Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer. (Bloomberg)