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> These platforms are private entities - they get to choose who is welcome. I feel like we're talking past each other. My belief is that when a corporation bec
by dilap 9y ago
> These platforms are private entities - they get to choose who is welcome.
I feel like we're talking past each other. My belief is that when a corporation becomes large and omnipresent enough, it's basically a de-facto government, and should probably be constrained from abusing its power in similar ways.
Imagine that YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Reddit &c decide that idea X is inappropriate. It will become difficult for us, as a society, to have a discussion about X, because it has been suppressed in our dominant discussion forums. That's not a healthy thing for an open society.
- groby_b 9y agoAgain, your OP was tied specifically to the US interpretation. But even if we leave that aside, a loss of YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Reddit is not a threat to discussion. You seem to imply that before these existed, there wasn't any actual discussion of important topics. Sure, social media has enabled massive amounts of screeching and foaming at the mouth, but beyond that, the impact on useful debate is more than doubtful. Unless you prefer populism over democracy, in which case it's an incredibly useful tool.