It has been a year in which the friction between technological innovation and politics achieved new heights.

How should really any regulation of social media be managed, the debate around free speech and censorship and details selection and privateness fears are all concerns that have shaped the previous 12 months.

In this article is a seem back at some of the greatest technological innovation stories of 2021.

– Donald Trump is kicked off social media

The storming of the US Capitol on January 6 by supporters of previous president Donald Trump – who had appeared to incite them along the way – was the closing straw for the social media platforms.

Right after months of labelling Trump posts as deceptive or hiding them from look at, Facebook, Twitter and other folks banned the previous president for posts they deemed to be inciting violence.

A debate all-around the electric power of social media swiftly sparked into daily life – critics lifted worries that this amounted to censorship and that reducing off a then sitting down planet leader from these massive boards was setting a harmful precedent, while many others argued that Mr Trump’s unfiltered and normally deceptive and blatantly untrue and hazardous posts could not be disregarded, regardless of the business office he held.

Almost a yr afterwards and the bans continue to be in place, and Mr Trump is nonetheless seeking for a new way to talk to his supporters broadly on the internet.

– Apple proceeds war on facts selection

Pursuing the introduction of its nourishment labels on facts collection for applications in 2020, Apple has spent 2021 doubling down on its pledge to greater guard person privateness and clamp down on data assortment, primarily that which is used to concentrate on promoting on line.

The most significant announcement arrived in the sort of App Monitoring Transparency (ATT), a resource that essential application builders, for the initially time, to talk to customers authorization to track them and their actions on apps and websites outside of their very own.

The resource gave consumers the potential to give and rescind permission to monitor them at any position, one thing Apple stated would drastically slash third-occasion facts collection.

In addition, the business utilized its iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 software program updates to introduce new instruments to assistance users conceal their IP handle and spot from remaining gathered by unsolicited promoting emails and a person which allows them to cover the web pages they’ve visited from third-party advertisers, yet again slicing down on details collection.

– Apple, Google and anti-aggressive conduct allegations

Apple may perhaps be getting praise for its solution to person privateness, but regulators have expended 2021 increasing issues about how it and Google function their respective iOS and Android application suppliers.

In Apple’s situation, mainly because its App Retail outlet is the only way users can download applications onto an Apple unit, considerations have been raised about it currently being able to stifle competitiveness by pushing its personal providers above these of its rivals and acquiring a monopoly over the apps that show up in the keep, as nicely as necessitating app builders to use Apple’s payment system for in-application buys – which Apple takes a fee from.

For Google, critics argue that its pre-loading of Google apps onto Android units is also unfair and anti-aggressive and its payment process composition is, like Apple’s, unfair.

The two firms have defended their methods declaring their application suppliers are set up to deliver basic safety and stability for users while letting developers to increase their businesses by getting a section of their ecosystems.

Tweaks to app retailer policies have also began coming into result – loosening some of the procedures about payments – in a indication of the debate acquiring an effect.

At the coronary heart of this situation is an ongoing legal struggle from Epic Game titles the maker of Fortnite, with the company pursuing lawful motion versus the companies in the US and Europe on the challenge following the strike sport was eradicated from both application shops in 2020 soon after seeking to introduce its personal payment method that bypassed Apple and Google’s systems.

That battle is set to rumble on into 2022.

– Online harms and the On line Protection Bill

The Government’s programs to control social media and internet corporations, keeping them accountable for unsafe articles which seems on their platforms, continued to appear with each other all through the year.

The extended-delayed On the net Safety Bill has however not built it to Parliament, but a joint committee of MPs and peers have now urged ministers to toughen up the draft Invoice to hold tech companies to account.

Their tips, released in December, termed for additional on line harms – these as fraudulent adverts and cyberflashing – to be brought into the scope of the Invoice and for named administrators at organizations to be criminally liable for any failures to secure customers.

The Government’s reaction is anticipated early following calendar year.