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I would go much further. Break up Twitter into a bunch of Mastodon instances. Break up Facebook into a bunch of Diaspora instances. The internet should be open.

I would go much further. Break up Twitter into a bunch of Mastodon instances. Break up Facebook into a bunch of Diaspora instances. The internet should be open. Imagine if email or HTTP was proprietary like Facebook and Twitter are. This is a nightmare and we should end it.

scarface74 8y ago
I wonder how people would feel if the VC's that they rely on were broken up for having "too much influence"?
outime 8y ago
Besides being infeasible for multiple reasons, how would that help with any of the problems pointed in the article (except the monopoly part)?
- kethinov 8y ago
  Of course it's feasible. There are already plenty of ways to migrate Twitter/FB data to Mastodon/Diaspora. To do a full migration, we would need an antitrust ruling with an order to perform the migration. It isn't likely but it is feasible. Solving the monopoly problem indirectly solves (or at least reduces the severity of) other problems. When one big bad actor gets reduced to twelve small actors, when one of those actors acts badly it's a smaller problem.
  - vkou 8y ago
    Migration isn't the problem. Lack of interop between platforms is. It doesn't matter that there's a Facebook clone that you can migrate your profile to, when nobody you want to talk to is using it.
    - kethinov 8y ago
      Mastodon and Diaspora are federated.
      - vkou 8y ago
        Can I talk to my Facebook friends from Mastodon? If the answer is no, then no amount of Facebook->Mastodon migration legislature is going to make a compelling case to switch, and the network effect will keep me in the Facebook ecosystem.
        kethinov 8y ago
        If Facebook were broken up into a dozen Diaspora instances, the answer is yes. That's the whole point of using antitrust law in this way. To solve that problem.
protomyth 8y ago
EMail is damn close since if Google blocks or marks your server as spam, its pretty over for you.
SketchySeaBeast 8y ago
> Imagine if email or HTTP was proprietary like Facebook and Twitter are. This is a nightmare and we should end it. Email is a means of communication, twitter is a platform. Anyone is free to implement a 140 character messaging service, the only problem is that these particular social media platforms have gotten monstrous. I don't like them, but the comparison between HTTP and Facebook doesn't seem right.
- threatofrain 8y ago
  Many people care about a social platform just because of its monstrous popularity, and for that reason one might say there will always be a demand for a Facebook, even if Facebook itself dies.
- kethinov 8y ago
  What is classified as a "means of communication" or a "public utility" and what is "a platform" is itself language that is a consequence of political conditions. If HTTP or email were proprietary and owned by a single entity, they would refer to their ownership of it as "a platform" just as Facebook and Twitter do now. There is no technical reason these services cannot be reduced to mere "means of communication" or a "public utility" by means of breaking them up into separate services that are forced to federate with each other over a common protocol, e.g. Mastodon/Diaspora.

scarface74 8y ago

I wonder how people would feel if the VC's that they rely on were broken up for having "too much influence"?

outime 8y ago

Besides being infeasible for multiple reasons, how would that help with any of the problems pointed in the article (except the monopoly part)?

kethinov 8y ago
Of course it's feasible. There are already plenty of ways to migrate Twitter/FB data to Mastodon/Diaspora. To do a full migration, we would need an antitrust ruling with an order to perform the migration. It isn't likely but it is feasible. Solving the monopoly problem indirectly solves (or at least reduces the severity of) other problems. When one big bad actor gets reduced to twelve small actors, when one of those actors acts badly it's a smaller problem.
- vkou 8y ago
  Migration isn't the problem. Lack of interop between platforms is. It doesn't matter that there's a Facebook clone that you can migrate your profile to, when nobody you want to talk to is using it.
  - kethinov 8y ago
    Mastodon and Diaspora are federated.
    - vkou 8y ago
      Can I talk to my Facebook friends from Mastodon? If the answer is no, then no amount of Facebook->Mastodon migration legislature is going to make a compelling case to switch, and the network effect will keep me in the Facebook ecosystem.
      - kethinov 8y ago
        If Facebook were broken up into a dozen Diaspora instances, the answer is yes. That's the whole point of using antitrust law in this way. To solve that problem.

protomyth 8y ago

EMail is damn close since if Google blocks or marks your server as spam, its pretty over for you.

SketchySeaBeast 8y ago

> Imagine if email or HTTP was proprietary like Facebook and Twitter are. This is a nightmare and we should end it. Email is a means of communication, twitter is a platform. Anyone is free to implement a 140 character messaging service, the only problem is that these particular social media platforms have gotten monstrous. I don't like them, but the comparison between HTTP and Facebook doesn't seem right.

threatofrain 8y ago
Many people care about a social platform just because of its monstrous popularity, and for that reason one might say there will always be a demand for a Facebook, even if Facebook itself dies.
kethinov 8y ago
What is classified as a "means of communication" or a "public utility" and what is "a platform" is itself language that is a consequence of political conditions. If HTTP or email were proprietary and owned by a single entity, they would refer to their ownership of it as "a platform" just as Facebook and Twitter do now. There is no technical reason these services cannot be reduced to mere "means of communication" or a "public utility" by means of breaking them up into separate services that are forced to federate with each other over a common protocol, e.g. Mastodon/Diaspora.