Tim Cook: Tech Regulations Are ‘Inevitable’

Apple’s CEO believes that new regulations for the tech industry are “inevitable.”

According to the Financial Times, Tim Cook said in an interview that “the free market is not working” and that the tech industry should embrace regulation.

“Generally speaking, I am not a big fan of regulation,” he said. “I’m a big believer in the free market. But we have to admit when the free market is not working. And it hasn’t worked here. I think it’s inevitable that there will be some level of regulation … I think Congress and the administration at some point will pass something.”

Cook’s comments come after it was reported that Facebook allegedly hired Definers, a Republican-leaning consultancy, to smear competitors and opponents such as Apple and Google. It’s an accusation the social media giant has denied.

Cook has been critical of Facebook since it was revealed last year that 87 million of its users had their data accessed by controversial political firm Cambridge Analytica. In May, he took jabs at the company in a commencement speech at Duke University.

“We reject the notion that getting the most out of technology means trading away your right to privacy, so we choose a different path: collecting as little of your data as possible, and being thoughtful and respectful when it’s in our care. Because we know it belongs to you,” Cook said in his address.

Cook has also called data privacy a human right and a civil liberty, and called for tougher privacy laws.

“I think that this certain situation is so dire and has become so large that probably some well-crafted regulation is necessary,” he said back in March. “The ability of anyone to know what you’ve been browsing about for years, who your contacts are, who their contacts are, things you like and dislike and every intimate detail of your life — from my own point of view, it shouldn’t exist.”

In August, it was reported that technology companies and groups such as the Information Technology Industry Council — which represents the likes of Facebook, Amazon, Google, and Salesforce.com — were working with the White House to shape data privacy legislation.