Corporate AI safety lobbying exposes global governance gaps, echoing past tech self‑regulation failures and ignoring Indigenous data sovereignty

Historical parallels show that industry‑led self‑regulation repeatedly fails to prevent systemic harms: the 1990s Internet Governance Forum’s voluntary principles did not curb spam, fraud, or early privacy invasions; social media platforms’ self‑policing after the 2016 election misinformation crisis led to delayed regulatory action; and financial derivatives markets’ self‑regulation prior to 2008 contributed to the global crisis. These episodes demonstrate that voluntary commitments often serve as a delaying tactic, allowing firms to entrench market power while postponing enforceable safeguards. Applying this lens to Anthropic’s bill reveals a similar risk of regulatory capture and insufficient accountability.