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Anti-trust law is a far cleaner way to approach that, with far fewer unintended consequences.
by ashtonkem 6y ago
Anti-trust law is a far cleaner way to approach that, with far fewer unintended consequences.
- karlmcguire 6y agoYea, because that's been working great thus far.
- theptip 6y agoWell no, the US hasn't been enforcing its existing antitrust laws very rigorously, that's the point the GP is making. E.g. see https://www.antitrustinstitute.org/work-product/antitrust-enforcement-report/ https://www.antitrustinstitute.org/work-product/antitrust-en... Rather than proposing a new technological solution to the problem ("platforms to protocols") which may work but is unproven, we could simply restart the use of existing tools that have been proven to work. This has the advantage of being a strategy that can be explained to non-technical folks.
- jjk166 6y agoIf I have a car that worked great 50 years ago but haven't been able to turn it on since the 70s when my neighbor destroyed the engine, I would not call that a proven, working car. The "existing tools" have been proven to have a major weakness, namely they can be neutered by regulatory capture. Unless you can get everyone to magically forget how they circumvented the rules last time, you can't simply restart using them.
- alangibson 6y agoYou can't really say antitrust hasn't been working when no one has been using it. The laws are fine if we have the will to apply them.
- ashtonkem 6y ago"The government has been unwilling to use existing powers against powerful corporations, maybe if we give them new and more expansive powers that'll do the trick. There's no possible way that these new powers will be turned against the powerless, right?"
- tw600040 6y ago"movement from platforms to protocols" is essentially anti-trust laws codified
- slg 6y agoDepending on how its done, "movement from platforms to protocols" can also be anarchy codified. Most people don't want that either.
- worik 6y agoPlease do not use the word "anarchy" as a synonym for "chaos". Anarchy is the opposite of chaos
- slg 6y agoWhat distinction are you trying to make here? A completely open protocol with no single controlling entity would not be inherently beholden to government control or laws like a platform would be. It can result in the distribution of illegal content such as child porn. How is this not an example of potential anarchy?
- ashtonkem 6y agoAnarchists as a political group usually don't like it when anarchy is compared to chaos, as this is usually a comparison that was formed by their ideological opponents.