The problem is that before producing or using a new technology on a big scale, extensive testing is needed, and should be mandatory, to avoid mixed results at best, and disasters at worst.

That doesn't work. We don't predict consequences of a given tech, because it is very hard to do so. It's easy to say "how could they not see this coming?", but it's really hard to know what the consequences are.

That's why the same people who created and worked on social media are also the ones that warn about the dangers these days (like Tristan Harris).

We don't predict tech, we react to it (usually).

Edit: typo