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The actual root cause is extremely intractable for these companies to solve because it inherently conflicts with their business model. The business model requir
by Despegar 8y ago
The actual root cause is extremely intractable for these companies to solve because it inherently conflicts with their business model. The business model requires highly paid software engineers to create a platform that matches buyers and sellers (or viewers and advertisers) but none of the associated costs with policing anything that happens on the platform that can't be done with technical means. As soon as they have to police anything (by preapproval or moderators taking things down after the fact) it massively cuts the margins of the business.
Section 230 enabled lots of internet businesses, but it also created lots of negative externalities that are only now being reckoned with after decades of a free-for-all.
- rodgerd 8y agoIt's only intractable if you're addicated to Nazi gold, as it were. Social media companies can and do solve this problem for countries like Germany (set your Twitter location to Germany, watch how many people disappear from it). They choose not to elsewhere.
- Despegar 8y agoI’m not saying they shouldn’t do it anyway. It’s just that they won’t do it on their own unless governments force them to. There’s no human right that says these businesses have to exist and/or be as profitable as they are. Societies can and should decide that.