4 ms·

I think FB/Twitter and others got bold, but kinda forgot they are also most likely digging themselves deep into regulation hell.

mc32 6y ago
It feels like they opened a Pandora’s box. They feel they have the power and self imprimatur to manage speech as they see fit, but now also activists are telling them to shut this or that voice they disagree with. They made this bed themselves.
- tomcam 6y ago
  > feel they have the power and self imprimatur to manage speech Well they shut down the former president of the USA. They clearly have nothing to fear.
- lmilcin 6y ago
  Well... not exactly. I mean it is true they did it. But they got help. Because I remember when all this was starting up two decades ago there were a lot of pressures to block this or that. Maybe hate speech, or maybe you crossed RIAA, or maybe you were of dark complexion and Middle East descent and nobody could tell what your arabic said but it defenitely had to be dangerous. So it became pretty customary to have corporations bring content down when asked to do so and this recent wave of deplatforming is just extension. Basically, that's what happens when you start to compromise on principles and choose the easy path. Instead of letting people exercise their free speech and using existing laws to chase people for when they are impinging on somebody elses rights, we chose to compromise and asked companies to do this without due process. And that was beginning of the slippery slope which now suddenly got much steeper than before.
  - mc32 6y ago
    While the RIAA is problematic, it was done under plausible cover of law. So, I understand following criminal laws and such. As for foreign locales, I think the solution is to operate locally like a Mazda or a PepsiCo has to do. Have locals manage your local ops, of course reporting to HQ. But now they decided to enter the unwieldily realm of figuring out intent of speech and whether it’s crossed moral lines or ethical lines or political lines. That’s just impossible and sets them up for failure. They deserve this failure. They want to dictate TO THE WORLD right and wrong speech UNIFORMLY. That’s utterly ridiculous. So China or Venezuela or Iran said mean things. So what! At least we know what they’re thinking and if serious enough take proper measures. It should not be FB or TWTTR who decide these things.
mkhpalm 6y ago
Digging themselves into a regulation hole is one thing. But they're digging the rest of us into that hole with them as they refuse to stop. The regulations applied to them will affect all of us as well.
- lmilcin 6y ago
  Nah, they can't refuse to stop. We just need strong enough coalition of countries. Not sure if US is going to do it but EU certainly will. And once laws are in place all those deplatformed organizations will pop up again pretty quickly.
- Frost1x 6y ago
  After a few months of using Facebook years ago it was pretty clear how toxic such an environment was. I really don't know how people have continued to support Facebook over the years. I still keep in touch with friends and family and most all of those services I use to communicate are benign, unlike Facebook. Unfortunately "vote with your wallet" (or attention, time, content creation, whatever) just doesn't work the way it's portrayed to work and now we have critical masses in these businesses that create governance through their corporate policies and practices.
colinmhayes 6y ago
The democrats were about to put them into regulation hell. They had to try something.
christophilus 6y ago
Regulatory capture is likely positive for Facebook
- anothernewdude 6y ago
  Regulatory capture requires politicians to follow their lobbyists, and not react against everything they say because FB et. al. have become public relations poison.
  - cronix 6y ago
    I think they'll be ok. They paid a lot of protection money this last go-round. https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/02/tech-billionaire-2020-election-donations-final-tally.html https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/02/tech-billionaire-2020-electi... Zuckerberg also donated north of $400 million.

mc32 6y ago

It feels like they opened a Pandora’s box. They feel they have the power and self imprimatur to manage speech as they see fit, but now also activists are telling them to shut this or that voice they disagree with. They made this bed themselves.

tomcam 6y ago
> feel they have the power and self imprimatur to manage speech Well they shut down the former president of the USA. They clearly have nothing to fear.
lmilcin 6y ago
Well... not exactly. I mean it is true they did it. But they got help. Because I remember when all this was starting up two decades ago there were a lot of pressures to block this or that. Maybe hate speech, or maybe you crossed RIAA, or maybe you were of dark complexion and Middle East descent and nobody could tell what your arabic said but it defenitely had to be dangerous. So it became pretty customary to have corporations bring content down when asked to do so and this recent wave of deplatforming is just extension. Basically, that's what happens when you start to compromise on principles and choose the easy path. Instead of letting people exercise their free speech and using existing laws to chase people for when they are impinging on somebody elses rights, we chose to compromise and asked companies to do this without due process. And that was beginning of the slippery slope which now suddenly got much steeper than before.
- mc32 6y ago
  While the RIAA is problematic, it was done under plausible cover of law. So, I understand following criminal laws and such. As for foreign locales, I think the solution is to operate locally like a Mazda or a PepsiCo has to do. Have locals manage your local ops, of course reporting to HQ. But now they decided to enter the unwieldily realm of figuring out intent of speech and whether it’s crossed moral lines or ethical lines or political lines. That’s just impossible and sets them up for failure. They deserve this failure. They want to dictate TO THE WORLD right and wrong speech UNIFORMLY. That’s utterly ridiculous. So China or Venezuela or Iran said mean things. So what! At least we know what they’re thinking and if serious enough take proper measures. It should not be FB or TWTTR who decide these things.

mkhpalm 6y ago

Digging themselves into a regulation hole is one thing. But they're digging the rest of us into that hole with them as they refuse to stop. The regulations applied to them will affect all of us as well.

lmilcin 6y ago
Nah, they can't refuse to stop. We just need strong enough coalition of countries. Not sure if US is going to do it but EU certainly will. And once laws are in place all those deplatformed organizations will pop up again pretty quickly.
Frost1x 6y ago
After a few months of using Facebook years ago it was pretty clear how toxic such an environment was. I really don't know how people have continued to support Facebook over the years. I still keep in touch with friends and family and most all of those services I use to communicate are benign, unlike Facebook. Unfortunately "vote with your wallet" (or attention, time, content creation, whatever) just doesn't work the way it's portrayed to work and now we have critical masses in these businesses that create governance through their corporate policies and practices.

colinmhayes 6y ago

The democrats were about to put them into regulation hell. They had to try something.

christophilus 6y ago

Regulatory capture is likely positive for Facebook

anothernewdude 6y ago
Regulatory capture requires politicians to follow their lobbyists, and not react against everything they say because FB et. al. have become public relations poison.
- cronix 6y ago
  I think they'll be ok. They paid a lot of protection money this last go-round. https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/02/tech-billionaire-2020-election-donations-final-tally.html https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/02/tech-billionaire-2020-electi... Zuckerberg also donated north of $400 million.