Each January, Fb’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, likes to go public with a decision for the yr forward. His 2018 one to “repair Fb” has clearly been an epic fail, given the stream of privateness scandals which have dogged the social-media behemoth over the previous 12 months. Different high-profile tech corporations, together with Twitter and Google, have additionally discovered themselves underneath fireplace once more this yr.

The backlash—or techlash—goes to roll on via 2019, and it may get even worse except the tech giants resolve to:

1. Do a much better job of defending folks’s knowledge

This primarily applies to Fb, which appears constitutionally incapable of holding customers’ data out of the palms of those that shouldn’t have it. Regardless of the Cambridge Analytica affair, which broke in March and ended up with Zuckerberg being hauled in entrance of Congress to elucidate what went mistaken, Fb continues to leak private knowledge like a sieve. Nevertheless it’s not the one Silicon Valley agency with a difficulty: in October it emerged that Google’s social community had uncovered the info of half one million customers due to a safety flaw.

If massive tech corporations haven’t carried out so already, they need to conduct a top-to-bottom audit in 2019 to make sure that personal data can’t be uncovered by their very own apps, by third-party apps, or by every other means. Within the US, they need to additionally help efforts to create a nationwide knowledge privateness regime impressed by Europe’s Common Information Safety Regulation, which got here into impact this yr and has robust monetary penalties for offenders. If their lobbyists attempt to water down any new US rules, it will likely be a transparent signal the businesses aren’t critical about holding this explicit decision.

2. Battle more durable towards hate speech and pretend information

This yr supplied but extra proof of the best way in which social media will be manipulated to trigger violence around the globe. Fb admitted that it had allowed posts that incited violence towards the Rohingya inhabitants in Myanmar, and its platform was briefly banned in Sri Lanka due to issues it was getting used to whip up tensions there. Within the US, Twitter tergiversated over whether or not to take down the accounts of far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and his InfoWars outlet however lastly did so.

There have been some encouraging indicators that tech corporations are lastly beginning to take bolder motion towards pretend data. They’ll rely closely on higher algorithms to assist them police content material in 2019, however this method has inherent limitations. And it’s about to face an excellent stiffer check with the arrival of AI-generated pretend movies and audio recordsdata. These “deepfakes” promise to make it even more durable to determine what data to belief. Social-media companies might want to commit vital assets and know-how to assist sort out the deepfake risk subsequent yr.

3. Do extra  to advertise workforce range

Employees in Silicon Valley are nonetheless overwhelmingly male and white or Asian. Big tech companies like Twitter, Fb, and Google have pledged multi-year efforts to spice up range, and a few recurrently get away employment figures by race and gender to trace progress.

However the price of change nonetheless feels glacial to many, together with an African-American former government at Fb who lately made public a memo he wrote accusing the corporate of “failing its black staff and black customers.” In response, Fb mentioned it’s dedicated to doing all it might to be a very inclusive firm. Civil rights teams and the media might be watching it and different Silicon Valley companies intently in 2019 to see in the event that they dwell as much as their range guarantees.

4. Pay a fair proportion of taxes

All corporations attempt to decrease the amount of cash they hand over to tax authorities, and large tech companies aren’t any totally different. However public outrage at their efforts to keep away from taxes via advanced, globe-spanning webs of accounts has grown as their income have soared. International locations together with the UK and France at the moment are pushing for new digital taxes on corporations like Apple, Google, and Fb. To cease the techlash from turning into a worldwide taxlash too, tech giants ought to commit in 2019 to start out unwinding their controversial tax-avoiding preparations.

5. Cease utilizing PR companies to smear critics

This decision ought to be simpler to make following revelations by the New York Occasions earlier this yr about Fb’s use of an organization referred to as Definers Public Affairs. The PR agency sought to discredit some Fb critics by insinuating that they have been financed by teams associated to George Soros, a well known investor who’s ceaselessly the goal of anti-Semitic assaults. It was additionally behind the publication of dozens of articles attacking Google and Apple for unsavory enterprise practices.

6. Curb anticompetitive instincts

There’s nothing Silicon Valley loves greater than a monopoly, and loads of tech giants have constructed up dominant positions in their markets. Monopolies aren’t essentially dangerous to shoppers or the broader financial system, however massive tech companies have abused their dominance to unfairly crush potential rivals. This yr, antitrust officers in the European Union hit Google with a $5 billion positive for alleged anticompetitive conduct; the corporate is interesting.

The case is one more signal of rising concern about Big Tech’s market energy. This isn’t restricted to Europe: US antitrust officers have additionally mentioned that they are going to be taking a more durable have a look at tech companies’ conduct. Silicon Valley’s tech giants ought to tread much more fastidiously in 2019 in the event that they need to keep away from extra authorized complications.

7. Hold reminding themselves of their resolutions

As anybody who’s made New Year’s resolutions is aware of, it may be actually arduous to maintain them. Having a daily reminder helps, so the bosses of Silicon Valley’s largest companies ought to resolve to seek out novel methods to maintain their commitments high of thoughts.

Right here’s a suggestion for Fb’s Zuckerberg. In 2009, with the world financial system in turmoil, his decision was to put on a tie each day as a reminder that Fb wanted to get critical about growing a sustainable enterprise mannequin. In 2019, one in all his resolutions ought to be to put on a tie and a swimsuit to work each day as a reminder of the deeply critical points Fb now wants to repair. He has, in spite of everything, had loads of follow sporting the combo at congressional hearings into Fb’s failings.