4 ms·
NYT has hiring process and editorial standards, FB/Twitter is a town message board. I think people pick on the government/private distinction too much. When the
by tehjoker 5y ago
NYT has hiring process and editorial standards, FB/Twitter is a town message board. I think people pick on the government/private distinction too much. When the government is leaning on private monopolies to implement public policy that would be illegal to do directly, I don't think this traditional analysis holds up. Tech CEOs are getting hauled before congress constantly these days, there's a revolving door of government officials. The public/private separation is very superficial.
Under conditions of monopoly, the private companies act much like a government, but unaccountable and undemocratic. It violates the spirit of 1776 to be subjected to the will of an unelected minority and be silenced.
That said, I find the opinions being suppressed despicable, but that doesn't mean I'm going to line up behind government censorship and private monopoly.
- poszlem 5y agoThat is essentially my point and you expressed it much better that I could (sorry, English as a second language). Facebook is not a newspaper. Twitter is not a newspaper. In this example Facebok/Twitter ARE PAPER. They are part of the infrastructure of the internet.
- tehjoker 5y agoSorry if I misunderstood you!
- mcguire 5y agoIf FB/Twitter is a town message board, then why are you concerned with what they do?
- tehjoker 5y agoI was told that civil society needs the freedom to discuss things in order to have a functioning society, but you do you. I'm a communist, so I'm no friend of the right wing, but the Hunter Biden story that was censored before the election is now confirmed. You're seeing the knock on effects of that.