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> The scale of denial and ignorance about censorship on HN Even here, where you would think people would know better, you still see people insist that it's not
by commandlinefan 4y ago
> The scale of denial and ignorance about censorship on HN
Even here, where you would think people would know better, you still see people insist that it's not censorship because it's not the government doing it.
- tl 4y agoFacebook is the government. PRISM [1] makes it explicit in Facebook's case, but any corporation beholden to a government for its continued operation is a policy arm of that government. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PRISM https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PRISM
- semiquaver 4y agoJust curious, can you name some large companies for which this doesn’t hold? Or are you saying that all corporations are arms of the government?
- tl 4y agoIt's a continuum, not a binary distinction. People tend to say, "this is government" or "this is not government". I disagree with that model, but it's a defensible position. What's not defensible is saying "this is not government therefore the first amendment doesn't apply" to a corporation that was secretly deputized by a government agency. To answer your question, here's an example continuum from "more government" to "less government": 1. Elected officials 2. Federal employees / appointees 3. The Federal Reserve (private but heavily controlled) 4. Facebook (private but deputized) 5. Your local bank (whose existence is a government granted monopoly) 6. Utilities (some regional monopolies / limited competition) 7. General Motors / General Electric (heavily subsidized via negative taxes / bailouts) 8. General Mills (regulated but not necessarily beholden) 9. 3M (held to general standards like OSHA) 10. You (for definitions of you that do not fit into an example above) People act like the line is somewhere between #2 and #3, but the reality is likely past #7.