Tools and Weapons: The Promise and the Peril of the Digital Age

by Brad Smith

I took from our battles three lessons that we continue to learn from and apply. As we consider the current role of technology in the world, these seem as applicable to the entire tech sector today as they did to our company in the past. First, we needed to accept the heightened expectations that those in government, the industry, our customers, and society at large had for us. We had to assume more responsibility, whether it was required by law or not. We were no longer an upstart. We needed to strive to set an example rather than argue that we could do whatever we wanted. Second, we needed to get out and listen to what other people had to say and do more to help solve the technology problems that needed to be solved. This started with building constructive working relationships with more people. But that was just the start. We had to understand better other people’s perceptions of and concerns about us. We needed to do a better job of solving small problems before they grew out of control. This required that we sit down more frequently with governments and even our competitors to find common ground. We recognized that we’d undoubtedly face some hard questions, and we would need to find the courage to compromise. There were days when some engineers argued that we should instead keep on fighting. At times, I almost felt that they were calling my courage into question. While there were times when we needed to stand our ground, there were many moments when I argued that it to...