'Silicon Valley' star says tech companies don't care about ethics

Technically Incorrect offers a slightly twisted take on the tech that's taken over our lives.

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Facebook, Google and Twitter sent their lawyers to twist in the wind in front of Congress on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Somehow the notion of sending, say, their CEOs to answer difficult legal and moral questions didn't seem quite right to them.

This vexed one of Silicon Valley's most vibrant personalities. Or, rather, "Silicon Valley"'s.

Kumail Nanjiani -- Dinesh the coder in the hit HBO series -- took to Twitter on Wednesday to express his concerns, based on his experiences with the truth of tech companies.

In a tweetstorm of some passion, the actor -- who's also enjoyed a hit movie "The Big Sick" this year -- suggested that Valley companies talk out of the side of their laptops.

He began by explaining that he was being tortured by certain thoughts that wouldn't leave his head.

As a cast member on a show about tech, our job entails visiting tech companies/conferences etc. We meet ppl eager to show off new tech.

— Kumail Nanjiani (@kumailn) November 1, 2017

And they're amazing, wonderful, necessary products, right?

Often we'll see tech that is scary. I don't mean weapons etc. I mean altering video, tech that violates privacy, stuff w obv ethical issues.

— Kumail Nanjiani (@kumailn) November 1, 2017

Ah, but what's obvious to a real human being doesn't necessarily exist in the minds of a Silicon Valley engineer.

They're moving fast, breaking things and making the world a better place. Without, that is, wondering too much about what the world thinks at all.

Nanjiani, though, offered a painful tale.

And we'll bring up our concerns to them. We are realizing that ZERO consideration seems to be given to the ethical implications of tech.

— Kumail Nanjiani (@kumailn) November 1, 2017

Zero? But tech companies express such care about our privacy. Especially in the terms of service that we agree to without reading.

What's stunning to Nanjiani is how little, in fact, tech companies seem even to think about ethics.

They don't even have a pat rehearsed answer. They are shocked at being asked. Which means nobody is asking those questions.

— Kumail Nanjiani (@kumailn) November 1, 2017

"We're not making it for that reason but the way ppl choose to use it isn't our fault. Safeguard will develop." But tech is moving so fast.

— Kumail Nanjiani (@kumailn) November 1, 2017

That there is no way humanity or laws can keep up. We don't even know how to deal with open death threats online.

— Kumail Nanjiani (@kumailn) November 1, 2017

He specifically named two companies that he believes are at fault.

Only "Can we do this?" Never "should we do this? We've seen that same blasé attitude in how Twitter or Facebook deal w abuse/fake news.

— Kumail Nanjiani (@kumailn) November 1, 2017

Neither Facebook nor Twitter immediately responded to a request for comment.

For Nanjiani, though, the situation is grave. He believes that "tech has the capacity to destroy us."

Indeed, it could start with just one ill-judged tweet leading to a nuclear war.

He believes that, at heart, there are no guardians of what tech has wrought. "It's terrifying," was his tweetstorming conclusion.

It is. For too long, powerful tech companies have enjoyed taking on power and influence, while ignoring the responsibilities that might come with it.

Some might say it's hardly surprising, given that many of these companies were created by youths with egos far larger than their life experience.

It's possible, though, that a few days of reckoning might be at hand.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg declared on Wednesday that he realized the situation was so serious that he was even prepared to sacrifice, gosh, profits, to fix abuse on its site.

Will the tech world finally become older and wiser? Or will it just keep rolling along as it has, continuing to insist that nothing is its fault?

Perhaps it will merely hope that one of its most vaunted characters gets elected president?

That would make us all sleep easier at night, wouldn't it?

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