Good question - I’m not saying that it’s bad if people voluntarily follow someone, what I’m saying is slightly different. It is bad if a network, like Facebook

Good question - I’m not saying that it’s bad if people voluntarily follow someone, what I’m saying is slightly different. It is bad if a network, like Facebook, has a large user base where it is attractive/valueable/helpful to someone who can know gain a larger following simply by joining (and getting people to voluntarily follow them). The network itself has value and people are able to exploit that value. Look at this example in comparison to the alternative - that political pundit launching their own network. They can say “hey, go join my social network which I just created!”. I firmly believe they should be entitled todo that and people should be able to voluntarily signup/follow them on that new network. But that is a much much harder task to build/operate/scale then simply joining yet another social network and tapping into the user base.