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Say what you will about whether or not a private company like Paypal should have the ability to do this. What clearly is true based on this example is that if

Say what you will about whether or not a private company like Paypal should have the ability to do this. What clearly is true based on this example is that if we ever gave this power to the government they would use it and use it in a dangerous way.

xqcgrek2 4y ago
Who knows, like Twitter, government officials are not sitting in the same Slack channel as Paypal employees?
loudmax 4y ago
So, these decisions ought to be entrusted to an entity whose responsibilities are to its shareholders rather than elected representatives of the general population?
- suoduandao2 4y ago
  honestly, amorality seems less scary than self-righteousness to me at this point in history.
  - jeltz 4y ago
    If you live in western Europe that is a point in favor of the government. Compared to the self rightousness of private companies the government are amoral buteacrats just following the regulations. Sure, there is some personal selrightousness but nowhere close to the levels at American tech companies.
    - suoduandao2 4y ago
      >If you live in western Europe that is a point in favor of the government. Maybe if history started in 1947 it would. Righteousness tends to do much better at the ballot box than the stock market. And self-righteous as American tech is for advertising purposes, I'd still say it has an order of magnitude more self-awareness than American politics for advertising purposes.
- scarface74 4y ago
  The representatives of the US are not “elected by the general population”. If that were the case, Montana wouldn’t have the same number of Senators as California, the President of the United States in 2016 would have been the one who received the most popular votes and gerrymandering wouldn’t be a thing. The last thing I want is to give the government more power. Have you been paying attention to laws in conservative states that want to regulate speech on Facebook and Twitter but go out of their way to make sure that sites like Truth Social aren’t affected, the “Stop Woke” act in Florida, the laws passed in GA and Florida to punish corporations who speak out against the government (Delta and Disney specifically).
madeofpalk 4y ago
? Government does have this power, because they have courts, police, and the army.
nottorp 4y ago
Private companies, especially US based, tend to ban everyone based on keeping every pressure group out there happy. At this point I'm pretty sure a government would ban less.

xqcgrek2 4y ago

Who knows, like Twitter, government officials are not sitting in the same Slack channel as Paypal employees?

loudmax 4y ago

So, these decisions ought to be entrusted to an entity whose responsibilities are to its shareholders rather than elected representatives of the general population?

suoduandao2 4y ago
honestly, amorality seems less scary than self-righteousness to me at this point in history.
- jeltz 4y ago
  If you live in western Europe that is a point in favor of the government. Compared to the self rightousness of private companies the government are amoral buteacrats just following the regulations. Sure, there is some personal selrightousness but nowhere close to the levels at American tech companies.
  - suoduandao2 4y ago
    >If you live in western Europe that is a point in favor of the government. Maybe if history started in 1947 it would. Righteousness tends to do much better at the ballot box than the stock market. And self-righteous as American tech is for advertising purposes, I'd still say it has an order of magnitude more self-awareness than American politics for advertising purposes.
scarface74 4y ago
The representatives of the US are not “elected by the general population”. If that were the case, Montana wouldn’t have the same number of Senators as California, the President of the United States in 2016 would have been the one who received the most popular votes and gerrymandering wouldn’t be a thing. The last thing I want is to give the government more power. Have you been paying attention to laws in conservative states that want to regulate speech on Facebook and Twitter but go out of their way to make sure that sites like Truth Social aren’t affected, the “Stop Woke” act in Florida, the laws passed in GA and Florida to punish corporations who speak out against the government (Delta and Disney specifically).

madeofpalk 4y ago

? Government does have this power, because they have courts, police, and the army.

nottorp 4y ago

Private companies, especially US based, tend to ban everyone based on keeping every pressure group out there happy. At this point I'm pretty sure a government would ban less.