When such problems arise, executives often stare blankly at their accusers. When a company called Path was recently found to be collecting the digital address books of its customers, for instance, its founder characterized the process as an “industry best practice.” He reversed the policy after a storm of criticism.

WHAT’S going on, when business as usual in such a dynamic industry makes the regulators — and the public — nervous?

Part of Google’s problem may be no more than an ordinary corporate quandary. “With ‘Don’t be evil,’ Google set itself up for accusations of hypocrisy anytime they got near the line,” says Roger McNamee, a longtime Silicon Valley investor. “Now they are on the defensive, with their business undermined especially by Apple. When people are defensive they can do things that are emotional, not reasonable, and bad behavior starts.”

But “Don’t be evil” also represents the impossibility of a more nuanced social code, a problem faced by many Internet companies. Nearly every tech company of significance, it seems, is building technologies that are producing an entirely new kind of culture. EBay, in theory, can turn anyone on the planet into a merchant. Amazon Web Services gives everyone a cheap supercomputer. Twitter and Facebook let you publish to millions. And tools like Google Translate allow us to transcend old language barriers.

“You want a company culture that says, ‘We are on a mission to change the world; the world is a better place because of us,’” says Reid Hoffman, founder of LinkedIn and a venture capitalist with Greylock Partners. “It’s not just ‘we create jobs.’ A tobacco company can do that.”

“These companies give away a ton of value, a public good, with free products like Google search, that transforms cultures,” Mr. Hoffman says. “The easy thing to say is, ‘If you try to regulate us, you’ll do more harm than good, you’re not good social architects.’ I’m not endorsing that, but I understand it.”

The executives themselves don’t know what their powerful changes mean yet, and they, like the rest of us, are dizzied by the pace of change. Sure, automobiles changed the world, but the roads, gas stations and suburbs grew over decades. Facebook was barely on the radar five years ago and now has a community of more than 800 million, doing things that no one predicted. When the builders of the technology barely understand the effect they are having, the regulators of the status quo can seem clueless.