well governments (and the massive number of associated government funded sites) could start by always having RSS and not sending their citizens towards the social media platforms with gratuitous links and endorsements.
that doesn't need much regulation, just an elementary ethical / moral code
but you are right about the limited role of governments in resolving this. this is not a complex / high risk / long term project where you need them. actually just the people in this thread could probably solve this from a technical perspective.
the elephant in the room is the publishing industry. one could excuse an initial decade of them being dazed and confused, but its 2021 and they should wake up and smell the coffee.
you are giving the massive number of people below the figureheads at the very top an easy pass... government IT is a major, major, segment and technology, protocol etc choices they make can have huge influence.
No-one knows everything, and every national leader has to employ experts on different subject areas.
Do you think that Joe Biden or Boris Johnson know enough about computer technology -- or any technology -- to employ staff who're competent? Do you think they can tell the difference between people who really know what they're talking about, and plausible-sounding bullshitters?
Particularly when the plausible-sounding bullshitters are executives from Big Tech companies who're trying to persuade a government to do something which is in the interests of Big Tech but not in the interest of the general public?
I don't, and I think many world leaders could easily be bamboozled by bullshit. Their thought processes would be something like: "This person is from Google/Microsoft/Facebook/Intel/etc, and that company provably knows a lot about technology. They know what they're talking about, and if I say they're wrong, I risk looking stupid (as I fully admit I don't understand the technology). So my best bet is to go along with them."
that doesn't need much regulation, just an elementary ethical / moral code
but you are right about the limited role of governments in resolving this. this is not a complex / high risk / long term project where you need them. actually just the people in this thread could probably solve this from a technical perspective.
the elephant in the room is the publishing industry. one could excuse an initial decade of them being dazed and confused, but its 2021 and they should wake up and smell the coffee.