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The next tech hearing targets social media algorithms – and YouTube, for once

2 points by throwawaysea 6y ago

throwawaysea 6y ago
I am personally not a fan of our legislature repeatedly bringing big technology companies in to pressure them to enact the moderation and algorithmic changes they seek. That is very plainly, censorship. The fact that the censorship is being implemented by a private organization does not make it any better, particularly given that it is being driven by government pressure. This article notes that a "flurry" of anti-trust reform bills are on their way, and so it seems to be like that's the legislative threat being used to enact government-driven censorship. Glenn Greenwald recently wrote (https://greenwald.substack.com/p/congress-in-a-five-hour-hearing-demands https://greenwald.substack.com/p/congress-in-a-five-hour-hea...), "the U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled that the state violates the First Amendment’s free speech guarantee when they coerce private actors to censor for them". That seems like exactly what this hearing is intended to do.
Grakel 6y ago
I would love to see a strong competitor to YouTube enter the market. PornHub should become "Hub" and diversify into regular content.
- throwawaysea 6y ago
  I think it would take either a prominent niche brand pivoting (like PornHub) or a mass migration of users (as with Parler) to jump start a new video platform. Unfortunately the costs are far higher than a text based Twitter competitor, both for hosting and content generation, and so I’m not sure how to solve the problem of getting advertisers and content creators onboard. Rumble (https://rumble.com/ https://rumble.com/) seems like a potentially viable competitor. A few compiled lists of YouTube alternatives: https://fossbytes.com/best-free-youtube-alternative-sites/ https://fossbytes.com/best-free-youtube-alternative-sites/ https://nordvpn.com/blog/youtube-alternatives/ https://nordvpn.com/blog/youtube-alternatives/ https://blockonomi.com/youtube-alternative/ https://blockonomi.com/youtube-alternative/

2 points by throwawaysea 6y ago

I am personally not a fan of our legislature repeatedly bringing big technology companies in to pressure them to enact the moderation and algorithmic changes they seek. That is very plainly, censorship. The fact that the censorship is being implemented by a private organization does not make it any better, particularly given that it is being driven by government pressure. This article notes that a "flurry" of anti-trust reform bills are on their way, and so it seems to be like that's the legislative threat being used to enact government-driven censorship. Glenn Greenwald recently wrote (https://greenwald.substack.com/p/congress-in-a-five-hour-hearing-demands https://greenwald.substack.com/p/congress-in-a-five-hour-hea...), "the U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled that the state violates the First Amendment’s free speech guarantee when they coerce private actors to censor for them". That seems like exactly what this hearing is intended to do.

Grakel 6y ago

I would love to see a strong competitor to YouTube enter the market. PornHub should become "Hub" and diversify into regular content.

throwawaysea 6y ago
I think it would take either a prominent niche brand pivoting (like PornHub) or a mass migration of users (as with Parler) to jump start a new video platform. Unfortunately the costs are far higher than a text based Twitter competitor, both for hosting and content generation, and so I’m not sure how to solve the problem of getting advertisers and content creators onboard. Rumble (https://rumble.com/ https://rumble.com/) seems like a potentially viable competitor. A few compiled lists of YouTube alternatives: https://fossbytes.com/best-free-youtube-alternative-sites/ https://fossbytes.com/best-free-youtube-alternative-sites/ https://nordvpn.com/blog/youtube-alternatives/ https://nordvpn.com/blog/youtube-alternatives/ https://blockonomi.com/youtube-alternative/ https://blockonomi.com/youtube-alternative/