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The bigger problem is "define platform" Don't like twitter censorship, make your own twitter. Ergo, Parler. Oh, but, that's not "your" platform, that's built

The bigger problem is "define platform" Don't like twitter censorship, make your own twitter. Ergo, Parler. Oh, but, that's not "your" platform, that's built on AWS's platform. So AWS can deplatform you. What's next, if Parler sets up in a datacenter with their own physical servers are people going to attack their colocation/transit/peers or their DNS provider or their domain registrar or their SSL certificate issuer? Is LetsEncrypt a platform? The biggest issue IMO is that with this you're centralizing all the idiotic and dangerous opinions and putting them in a huge echo chamber where they only ever see (mostly stupid) opinions of people they agree with. It's accomplishing the some of the goal the de-platformers want (they don't want to see the dumb content) but the content is still there, just more fringe and more radical and now they can rightfully complain about suppression of their opinions.

ALittleLight 6y ago
Oh, your phone app is banned? Just make your own phone, hardware and software.
- njarboe 6y ago
  Check out: https://puri.sm/products/ https://puri.sm/products/
  - AdamJacobMuller 6y ago
    I don’t feel like purism is a viable alternative. it’s very expensive for what you’re getting and in all respects that i’ve heard the software is not up to par and the ecosystem is effectively non-existent. I have yet to try one personally and might soon in spite of the price tag, i would love to be wrong but i don’t think i am.
    - AnthonyMouse 6y ago
      > I don’t feel like purism is a viable alternative. it’s very expensive for what you’re getting and in all respects that i’ve heard the software is not up to par and the ecosystem is effectively non-existent. Let's go through these. It's basically brand new so there aren't a lot of third party apps. If you're the sort of person who loves installing the app for your Smart Toaster on your phone, you may not like this. But you get 95-99% of the value out of a phone if it can make phone calls, message people and has a web browser. Most apps are crap. They also have plans to support Android apps in the not too distant future. The hardware is slower than similarly priced hardware. But again, does this really matter? You're not mining Bitcoin or rendering feature length motion pictures on your phone, are you? Which leaves the price. It's high because they're still not making them in huge volumes. It means the early adopters will be people with money. But that's good; people with money attract developers etc. And once the volumes are higher the price will come down. But this is all kind of chicken and egg. It's not impossible but it's hard and they may or may not succeed. If your point is that isn't already viable for everyone, that's certainly true.
- AdamJacobMuller 6y ago
  Phone apps are more complex. My concern is less apple banning things and far more when apple and google operate in lockstep. there is a fundamental misunderstanding in the app store review world, it was highlighted when google banned element(??) the matrix client. will apple ban IRC clients because they can connect to bad servers with universally objectionable content? will they ban SSH clients because they can be used to hack? With the last big ban controversy (fortnight) I was firmly in the pro walled garden camp, but, now i’m no longer seeing where the big duopoly draws the line and i don’t like it.
  - ALittleLight 6y ago
    I think part of the problem is that much of our laws and intuitions are built for a time when there were competitors or they are designed for local marketplaces rather than internet scale businesses. If my grocer is a jerk, I can go to a different grocery store. If this mechanic is always giving me dubious advice I can find a different one. Modern businesses, at internet scale, really aren't that way though. They are much more "winner take all". Maybe there are one or two winners, but when they win they really do take almost all the market share. And for most of the developed world simultaneously. I can kind of get my own phone. Someone else in this thread mentions Purism. I could also get a rooted Android phone and install a version of Android that takes out Google. What I can't do, effectively, is make my own app, if the duopoly would prefer I not. I could put my app in a private app store or offer it to the kinds of people who use Librem phones, but the market there is too small to run a successful business. Google (via Android) and Apple are effectively both a monopoly, they sell/control almost all of the phones, and a monopsony, they control almost all of the supply of phone users.
- mrweasel 6y ago
  Well... Yes, that's one very valid cause of action. It might not be the only way forward, it depends on a lot of things. There's absolutely nothing standing in the way of PornHub introducing a phone, because they want to adult apps to be allowed. Want to sell adult content on Instagram, but you're not allowed? Go build onlyfans.com.
hoseja 6y ago
>they don't want to see the dumb content I don't think that's the point. They want to feel the warm satisfaction of righteous fury and enemy defeated.

ALittleLight 6y ago

Oh, your phone app is banned? Just make your own phone, hardware and software.

njarboe 6y ago
Check out: https://puri.sm/products/ https://puri.sm/products/
- AdamJacobMuller 6y ago
  I don’t feel like purism is a viable alternative. it’s very expensive for what you’re getting and in all respects that i’ve heard the software is not up to par and the ecosystem is effectively non-existent. I have yet to try one personally and might soon in spite of the price tag, i would love to be wrong but i don’t think i am.
  - AnthonyMouse 6y ago
    > I don’t feel like purism is a viable alternative. it’s very expensive for what you’re getting and in all respects that i’ve heard the software is not up to par and the ecosystem is effectively non-existent. Let's go through these. It's basically brand new so there aren't a lot of third party apps. If you're the sort of person who loves installing the app for your Smart Toaster on your phone, you may not like this. But you get 95-99% of the value out of a phone if it can make phone calls, message people and has a web browser. Most apps are crap. They also have plans to support Android apps in the not too distant future. The hardware is slower than similarly priced hardware. But again, does this really matter? You're not mining Bitcoin or rendering feature length motion pictures on your phone, are you? Which leaves the price. It's high because they're still not making them in huge volumes. It means the early adopters will be people with money. But that's good; people with money attract developers etc. And once the volumes are higher the price will come down. But this is all kind of chicken and egg. It's not impossible but it's hard and they may or may not succeed. If your point is that isn't already viable for everyone, that's certainly true.
AdamJacobMuller 6y ago
Phone apps are more complex. My concern is less apple banning things and far more when apple and google operate in lockstep. there is a fundamental misunderstanding in the app store review world, it was highlighted when google banned element(??) the matrix client. will apple ban IRC clients because they can connect to bad servers with universally objectionable content? will they ban SSH clients because they can be used to hack? With the last big ban controversy (fortnight) I was firmly in the pro walled garden camp, but, now i’m no longer seeing where the big duopoly draws the line and i don’t like it.
- ALittleLight 6y ago
  I think part of the problem is that much of our laws and intuitions are built for a time when there were competitors or they are designed for local marketplaces rather than internet scale businesses. If my grocer is a jerk, I can go to a different grocery store. If this mechanic is always giving me dubious advice I can find a different one. Modern businesses, at internet scale, really aren't that way though. They are much more "winner take all". Maybe there are one or two winners, but when they win they really do take almost all the market share. And for most of the developed world simultaneously. I can kind of get my own phone. Someone else in this thread mentions Purism. I could also get a rooted Android phone and install a version of Android that takes out Google. What I can't do, effectively, is make my own app, if the duopoly would prefer I not. I could put my app in a private app store or offer it to the kinds of people who use Librem phones, but the market there is too small to run a successful business. Google (via Android) and Apple are effectively both a monopoly, they sell/control almost all of the phones, and a monopsony, they control almost all of the supply of phone users.
mrweasel 6y ago
Well... Yes, that's one very valid cause of action. It might not be the only way forward, it depends on a lot of things. There's absolutely nothing standing in the way of PornHub introducing a phone, because they want to adult apps to be allowed. Want to sell adult content on Instagram, but you're not allowed? Go build onlyfans.com.

hoseja 6y ago

>they don't want to see the dumb content I don't think that's the point. They want to feel the warm satisfaction of righteous fury and enemy defeated.