>"Patreon takes a highly personal approach to policing speech. While Google and Facebook use algorithms as a first line of defense for questionable content, Pat

>"Patreon takes a highly personal approach to policing speech. While Google and Facebook use algorithms as a first line of defense for questionable content, Patreon has human moderators. They give warnings and reach out to talk to offenders, presenting options for “education” and “reform.” Some activists hope this will become a model for a better and kinder internet." As soon a I hear the words "education" and "reform" the hair goes up on the back of my neck. It's bad enough when a totalitarian government does this with internment camps etc., but when I private company, that has no accountability to the general public doing this we are in deep trouble. The only good news is that with this there are some well funded alternatives in the works for a Patreon alternative, unlike Google alternatives etc. which are not as readily available. That said, some of the pressure has been coming from Visa and MasterCard. Once again, given their position in the market they can and should be regulated as utilities.