4 ms·

The argument is that it's getting there. It's the leading platform for public debate in the US right now. Journalists spend their days refreshing their Twitter

The argument is that it's getting there. It's the leading platform for public debate in the US right now. Journalists spend their days refreshing their Twitter feed, so the effect isn't just in the size of Twitter's platform but its influence.

qchris 6y ago
I'd love to be a fly on the wall when a legal team responsible for supporting this narrative has to tackle the issue of regulating the platforms as a public utility, but not the Internet providers that carry them.
riffic 6y ago
There have been people making these arguments both for and against for a very long time. Even as an example, on this very site: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=%22public%20utility%22%20AND%20twitter&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que... I think you'll quickly lean in the opposing view after reviewing those viewpoints, because if Twitter was a utility it would have been declared one at some point in the previous 11 years.
- baq 6y ago
  how long did it take to break up standard oil? ma bell?
  - root_axis 6y ago
    What would it even mean to break up twitter? How would that work?
    - baq 6y ago
      i'm just pointing out 11 years is a very short time for regulators to do anything.
      - root_axis 6y ago
        My point is that websites are fundamentally different from resources you extract from the environment and the eagerness by some to treat them as such is specious.
eximius 6y ago
Twitter is a plague on public discourse. We'd be better off as a society if it were never invented. If I knew how to put the genie back in the bottle, I would advocate for it.
- baq 6y ago
  it's easy enough - make it a paid-for service and regulate - read ban - free versions. not going to happen because apparently people paying with their attention instead of dollars in manipulative ways is just fine. the argument goes that they can always not read it, but that's a false dichotomy in social networks and why i'd like to see twitter, google and facebook get labeled as utilities.
  - eximius 6y ago
    I'd love to see ISPs become utilities, which would be the first step. Disclaimer: I work for Google, this represents my personal opinion, not that of my employer, etc. Google, the search engine, I could see being a utility. The rest is iffy. Now, how you disentangle that from the rest of the business... I can either see it being impossible or essentially already done (depends whether you think their existing ads system is biased in some way that regulations/utilit-ification would change - I'm not in ads, I wouldn't know). Twitter and Facebook as utilities... I mean, I'm not sure I buy it. What kind of utility is it? A utility is something I imagine to be somewhat required by society. A search engine is kind of required in modern society. Facebook and Twitter are incredibly easy to do without.
    - baq 6y ago
      POTUS is on Twitter. If you want access to his tweets, you absolutely must use Twitter. Maybe it's a policy problem of the US in particular and politicians in general instead of Twitter/Facebook being an utility. As is, status quo is for me that they're utilities for that single reason.
      - eximius 6y ago
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

qchris 6y ago

I'd love to be a fly on the wall when a legal team responsible for supporting this narrative has to tackle the issue of regulating the platforms as a public utility, but not the Internet providers that carry them.

riffic 6y ago

There have been people making these arguments both for and against for a very long time. Even as an example, on this very site: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=%22public%20utility%22%20AND%20twitter&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que... I think you'll quickly lean in the opposing view after reviewing those viewpoints, because if Twitter was a utility it would have been declared one at some point in the previous 11 years.

baq 6y ago
how long did it take to break up standard oil? ma bell?
- root_axis 6y ago
  What would it even mean to break up twitter? How would that work?
  - baq 6y ago
    i'm just pointing out 11 years is a very short time for regulators to do anything.
    - root_axis 6y ago
      My point is that websites are fundamentally different from resources you extract from the environment and the eagerness by some to treat them as such is specious.

eximius 6y ago

Twitter is a plague on public discourse. We'd be better off as a society if it were never invented. If I knew how to put the genie back in the bottle, I would advocate for it.

baq 6y ago
it's easy enough - make it a paid-for service and regulate - read ban - free versions. not going to happen because apparently people paying with their attention instead of dollars in manipulative ways is just fine. the argument goes that they can always not read it, but that's a false dichotomy in social networks and why i'd like to see twitter, google and facebook get labeled as utilities.
- eximius 6y ago
  I'd love to see ISPs become utilities, which would be the first step. Disclaimer: I work for Google, this represents my personal opinion, not that of my employer, etc. Google, the search engine, I could see being a utility. The rest is iffy. Now, how you disentangle that from the rest of the business... I can either see it being impossible or essentially already done (depends whether you think their existing ads system is biased in some way that regulations/utilit-ification would change - I'm not in ads, I wouldn't know). Twitter and Facebook as utilities... I mean, I'm not sure I buy it. What kind of utility is it? A utility is something I imagine to be somewhat required by society. A search engine is kind of required in modern society. Facebook and Twitter are incredibly easy to do without.
  - baq 6y ago
    POTUS is on Twitter. If you want access to his tweets, you absolutely must use Twitter. Maybe it's a policy problem of the US in particular and politicians in general instead of Twitter/Facebook being an utility. As is, status quo is for me that they're utilities for that single reason.
    - eximius 6y ago

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]