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The big three tech companies need to be broken up. Too much power in the hands of a few. Don't like what your opponents are saying? Label them "hate speech", cl

The big three tech companies need to be broken up. Too much power in the hands of a few. Don't like what your opponents are saying? Label them "hate speech", close down their networks & move on. You can't be heard if you don't have a voice. They (the big three) should not be allowed to own our internet interactions anymore than the phone company could listen to and profit from our conversations or regulate what we talk about.

Sohcahtoa82 8y ago
> Don't like what your opponents are saying? Label them "hate speech" If you think people just simply didn't like what InfoWars would spew, you have another thing coming. Read up on Pizzagate. Someone went into a pizza parlor with a gun to investigate Alex Jones's claims that Hillary Clinton was running a child sex trafficking ring in the basement. Innocent lives could have been lost for bullshit InfoWars was spouting. This goes well beyond "I just don't like you." InfoWars is outright dangerous and is poisoning the minds of Americans. > They (the big three) should not be allowed to own our internet interactions They don't. You're still free to use other messaging platforms, or even make your own! The startup costs for creating a web site/app are astronomically low.
- mindslight 8y ago
  You do realize that garbage spewed by the New York Times has caused hundreds of thousands of innocent lives to be lost, right?
  - Sohcahtoa82 8y ago
    Do you have a concrete example of this?
    - mindslight 8y ago
      I guess it's considered history now: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judith_Miller#The_Iraq_War https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judith_Miller#The_Iraq_War
      - jessaustin 8y ago
        We're not supposed to remember yesterday! If it had been something important they would tell us what had happened!
      - Sohcahtoa82 8y ago
        I'm not entirely convinced. That article even says that there was "extensive reporting showing that the Bush administration was making plans for an Iraq invasion before the advent of intelligence used to justify it."
        mindslight 8y ago
        Bush II stuttered through "The Pet Goat" - I certainly wasn't saying he came up with the idea to attack Iraq by reading the New York Times [0]. The point is that it was an integral part of a propaganda campaign to sell the Iraq War. The meme of "fake news" fuels an environment of groupthink deciding what should be outright ignored. It is thus a tool of power, not truth. [0] I am aware of the general blindspot created by writing these people off as idiots, alas.
rtkwe 8y ago
Breaking them up won't solve anything. Youtube and Facebook are huge specifically because of their network effects. In the case of Youtube without something like ActivityPub aggregating all the different video services into one inevitably some other company will gather more users, thus becoming the more profitable platform for creators, thus attracting more creators which will attract more users. There's also the question of can something like youtube, where there's pretty much no restrictions on who can upload and how much they can upload, be profitable at a smaller scale or without being the subsidiary of a larger corporation with another huge money pipe?

Sohcahtoa82 8y ago

> Don't like what your opponents are saying? Label them "hate speech" If you think people just simply didn't like what InfoWars would spew, you have another thing coming. Read up on Pizzagate. Someone went into a pizza parlor with a gun to investigate Alex Jones's claims that Hillary Clinton was running a child sex trafficking ring in the basement. Innocent lives could have been lost for bullshit InfoWars was spouting. This goes well beyond "I just don't like you." InfoWars is outright dangerous and is poisoning the minds of Americans. > They (the big three) should not be allowed to own our internet interactions They don't. You're still free to use other messaging platforms, or even make your own! The startup costs for creating a web site/app are astronomically low.

mindslight 8y ago
You do realize that garbage spewed by the New York Times has caused hundreds of thousands of innocent lives to be lost, right?
- Sohcahtoa82 8y ago
  Do you have a concrete example of this?
  - mindslight 8y ago
    I guess it's considered history now: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judith_Miller#The_Iraq_War https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judith_Miller#The_Iraq_War
    - jessaustin 8y ago
      We're not supposed to remember yesterday! If it had been something important they would tell us what had happened!
    - Sohcahtoa82 8y ago
      I'm not entirely convinced. That article even says that there was "extensive reporting showing that the Bush administration was making plans for an Iraq invasion before the advent of intelligence used to justify it."
      - mindslight 8y ago
        Bush II stuttered through "The Pet Goat" - I certainly wasn't saying he came up with the idea to attack Iraq by reading the New York Times [0]. The point is that it was an integral part of a propaganda campaign to sell the Iraq War. The meme of "fake news" fuels an environment of groupthink deciding what should be outright ignored. It is thus a tool of power, not truth. [0] I am aware of the general blindspot created by writing these people off as idiots, alas.

rtkwe 8y ago

Breaking them up won't solve anything. Youtube and Facebook are huge specifically because of their network effects. In the case of Youtube without something like ActivityPub aggregating all the different video services into one inevitably some other company will gather more users, thus becoming the more profitable platform for creators, thus attracting more creators which will attract more users. There's also the question of can something like youtube, where there's pretty much no restrictions on who can upload and how much they can upload, be profitable at a smaller scale or without being the subsidiary of a larger corporation with another huge money pipe?