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I don't hate Peter Thiel but I feel compelled as an American to say I believe that we should find ways to improve our democratic system, not get rid of it. Thie

I don't hate Peter Thiel but I feel compelled as an American to say I believe that we should find ways to improve our democratic system, not get rid of it. Thiel seems to believe democracy doesn't work and presumably technocrats such as himself would be better running things. Perish the thought.

Mountain_Skies 5y ago
A rapidly growing opinion on HN that's approaching majority status is that tech titans should be able to tightly control what information people see in order to control their votes because otherwise they will vote incorrectly. This might not be your view, but it is incredibly common here and in the tech sector. Guess it's still technically a democracy if everyone votes after having their information highly curated by the tech industry but it certainly isn't one spiritually.
- mwattsun 5y ago
  > should be able to tightly control what information people see You don't say what you mean by this so I don't know how to respond. Some say the tech companies lean left, some say they lean right, but HN is not the place to discuss politics. I will say most of the posts and comments I see are aligned with the hacker's ethos of opposing censorship. Banning Rep. Greene for vaccine misinformation or former President Trump for inciting violence is not censorship.
- gonehome 5y ago
  It’s a speech issue and the ability for private companies to exercise their own moderation is the free speech position. A government forcing private companies to implement policies around speech is a violation of their speech. My take on this is more nuanced and I think private companies wielding speech restriction is high risk, but people saying the government should step in are wrong imo. https://zalberico.com/essay/2020/06/16/mark-zuckerberg-and-free-speech.html https://zalberico.com/essay/2020/06/16/mark-zuckerberg-and-f...
  - mwattsun 5y ago
    Another aspect is that companies like Twitter or Meta have legal exposure in various jurisdictions around the world. The libel laws in the UK are different than that those in the US, etc... They're responsibility for what is on their sites is an ongoing question. They have to have the ability to moderate their sites to comply with local laws, or they have to be excused from liability.

Mountain_Skies 5y ago

A rapidly growing opinion on HN that's approaching majority status is that tech titans should be able to tightly control what information people see in order to control their votes because otherwise they will vote incorrectly. This might not be your view, but it is incredibly common here and in the tech sector. Guess it's still technically a democracy if everyone votes after having their information highly curated by the tech industry but it certainly isn't one spiritually.

mwattsun 5y ago
> should be able to tightly control what information people see You don't say what you mean by this so I don't know how to respond. Some say the tech companies lean left, some say they lean right, but HN is not the place to discuss politics. I will say most of the posts and comments I see are aligned with the hacker's ethos of opposing censorship. Banning Rep. Greene for vaccine misinformation or former President Trump for inciting violence is not censorship.
gonehome 5y ago
It’s a speech issue and the ability for private companies to exercise their own moderation is the free speech position. A government forcing private companies to implement policies around speech is a violation of their speech. My take on this is more nuanced and I think private companies wielding speech restriction is high risk, but people saying the government should step in are wrong imo. https://zalberico.com/essay/2020/06/16/mark-zuckerberg-and-free-speech.html https://zalberico.com/essay/2020/06/16/mark-zuckerberg-and-f...
- mwattsun 5y ago
  Another aspect is that companies like Twitter or Meta have legal exposure in various jurisdictions around the world. The libel laws in the UK are different than that those in the US, etc... They're responsibility for what is on their sites is an ongoing question. They have to have the ability to moderate their sites to comply with local laws, or they have to be excused from liability.