"Many Banks and Similar Institutions During the 2008 Global Financial Crisis"... Measures Needed for Personal Information Protection
[Asia Economy Reporter Jeong Hyunjin] As the influence of social networking services (SNS) including Facebook grows stronger worldwide, there is a forecast that if these companies suddenly collapse, it would cause significant social and economic turmoil. Similar to the banks during the 2008 global financial crisis that sparked the 'too big to fail' debate, the high dependency of users calls for measures to prepare for such an event.
According to the daily newspaper The Guardian on the 11th (local time), in a doctoral dissertation submitted to the University of Oxford in the UK and published in the Internet Policy Review journal on the same day, authors Karl Oymana and Nikita Amarval analyzed discussion points based on the worst-case scenario that the world's largest SNS, Facebook, could go bankrupt. This study takes into account the threats posed by recent regulatory pressures on SNS and changing trends.
They stated, "The termination of services of global online communication platforms like Facebook, which serve as the foundation of daily life and on which countless societies depend, would result in social and economic chaos," referring to those who collect and store personal data through Facebook. They noted that developing countries that communicate primarily through Facebook could face even greater difficulties.
They also pointed out potential issues such as the lack of user consent in the use and deletion of personal information or the selling off of data during bankruptcy proceedings. Additionally, they warned that various historical records documented through SNS could be extensively lost.
They confirmed that, similar to Lehman Brothers during the global financial crisis, there are clear similarities with the concept of "systemically important financial institutions," stating, "While these institutions need to be maintained, they cannot be sustained at all costs."
Based on this, the two authors proposed the concept of 'systemically important technological institutions (SITI).' They emphasized, "The term 'too big to fail' is sometimes interpreted as 'too important to ever disappear,' but it actually means that an entity is too large to fail without proper resolution."
They stressed that if SNS were to go bankrupt or shut down, regulatory authorities should establish new regulations to protect users and society, such as allowing users to decide on their own records and strengthening the protection of deceased persons' personal information.
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