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As long as the public square is privately owned we're going to have problems. I think it's great these companies have stopped supporting Parler. The problem is

As long as the public square is privately owned we're going to have problems. I think it's great these companies have stopped supporting Parler. The problem is that so much power has devolved to these entirely unaccountable organizations that it feels like an infringement of free speech. We are going to need a stable place for important discourse and that will require carefully designed governance structures, transparency, and independence that no ad supported company can possibly provide.

gonzo41 6y ago
Or, don't have any structure and let people host their own little public square themselves. Little mom and pop nazi/terrorist boards on smaller providers all over the web. Twitter is kinda great that I can post direct to the whole world. But that requires a bit of discipline. As an affect I somewhat think through what I'm posting. Much like what we all try to do here. Everyone around here pines for the older internet. And one of the ways to get it back is to have standards, that are visible and enforced on larger platforms so people know, that speech has consequences. And if people want to do their seditious terrorist thing. They can host it themselves and manage all the risk. No public square has every been as big as some of these sites. So maybe the metaphor doesn't work.
- jrumbut 6y ago
  I don't know about that, I don't remember any real consequences or standards on the early Internet. When it was a technological novelty there weren't organized and well funded efforts to posting in bad faith. I guess it depends how early you're talking about. We're in new territory here,and we need new institutions, new standards.
rightbyte 6y ago
> As long as the public square is privately owned we're going to have problems. There is a roofed mall with like 40 stores where I live where three nurses were protesting shoppers crowding. The mall forced them to stand outside the mall. I mean physical "public squares" are not what they used to be and it is a problem.

gonzo41 6y ago

Or, don't have any structure and let people host their own little public square themselves. Little mom and pop nazi/terrorist boards on smaller providers all over the web. Twitter is kinda great that I can post direct to the whole world. But that requires a bit of discipline. As an affect I somewhat think through what I'm posting. Much like what we all try to do here. Everyone around here pines for the older internet. And one of the ways to get it back is to have standards, that are visible and enforced on larger platforms so people know, that speech has consequences. And if people want to do their seditious terrorist thing. They can host it themselves and manage all the risk. No public square has every been as big as some of these sites. So maybe the metaphor doesn't work.

jrumbut 6y ago
I don't know about that, I don't remember any real consequences or standards on the early Internet. When it was a technological novelty there weren't organized and well funded efforts to posting in bad faith. I guess it depends how early you're talking about. We're in new territory here,and we need new institutions, new standards.

rightbyte 6y ago

> As long as the public square is privately owned we're going to have problems. There is a roofed mall with like 40 stores where I live where three nurses were protesting shoppers crowding. The mall forced them to stand outside the mall. I mean physical "public squares" are not what they used to be and it is a problem.