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They are in various ways more like utilities than products - like other utilities they/we would benefit from regulation - leveling the playing field and helping

• troyvit 4y ago
  Then we should name them as utilities before we start regulating them as such. And who is the one to name them a utility? Is it the government of the company's base of operations? If so won't they just move (such as many companies do to avoid tax complications)? And where do you draw the line? Why is Discord a utility and not, say, Truth Social? And then how do you turn federated networks like Mastodon into utilities? Once something is classified as a utlity, what are the rules for guarding customer data? Are they more beholden to governments to release customer data? Less?
  • e12e 4y ago
    > Then we should name them as utilities before we start regulating them as such. Well, we should certainly make an effort so that regulations are predictable and sensible. > And where do you draw the line? Why is Discord a utility and not, say, Truth Social? > And then how do you turn federated networks like Mastodon into utilities? I think this is going about it from the wrong side. Snail mail, phone service, internet service - these are things we regulate in various ways. Maybe we should with various, similar digital services too. Email? Messaging networks like discord?