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Honestly, I think it would be pretty good law to treat any private entity that amassed too much power or control under the same kinds of restrictions as the gov

by tivert 2y ago

Honestly, I think it would be pretty good law to treat any private entity that amassed too much power or control under the same kinds of restrictions as the government. It's not like only the government is capable of trampling on people's liberty, and concentration of power can. Ideally, competition law would keep all private entities small enough to never need apply government-like to any of them, but I'd rather have some defense-in-depth and not let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

beej71 2y ago
Doesn't antitrust already deal with this kind of thing?
- toomuchtodo 2y ago
  Only when enforced, which it hasn’t been until very recently.
- tivert 2y ago
  > Doesn't antitrust already deal with this kind of thing? Theoretically, but as a sibling comment mentioned, enforcement of that has been lax. That's why I'd like to see some defense-in-depth. If there are multiple ways to thwart that kind of concentrated power, we're not fucked if the one basket (antitrust) we were putting all our eggs into fails. I also think you may letting perfect be the enemy of the good (e.g. antitrust should already deal with this kind of thing, so it's the only thing that should deal it).
  - beej71 2y ago
    What form of enforcement do you envision that is compatible with the First Amendment?
    - yodon 2y ago
      >What form of enforcement do you envision that is compatible with the First Amendment? The first step would be rolling back "corporations are people and have the rights of people." Granting corporations the rights of people turned them into a superior life form that can live forever, reproduce sexually and asexually through mergers and splits, mutate on purpose, own property, cross borders, and do all this with a tax advantage over humans. Willfully seeding the world with a superior life form was not a good idea, and today they have the lobbying budgets and first amendment rights to make sure they retain that primacy. I agree corporations need to be able to curate speech, but the first amendment is not the framework to use to justify this.
      - beej71 2y ago
        Let's step is back from corporations a bit for a moment. What's the framework to justify me erasing (for no good reason) comments people make on my personal website?

by tivert 2y ago

beej71 2y ago

Doesn't antitrust already deal with this kind of thing?

toomuchtodo 2y ago
Only when enforced, which it hasn’t been until very recently.
tivert 2y ago
> Doesn't antitrust already deal with this kind of thing? Theoretically, but as a sibling comment mentioned, enforcement of that has been lax. That's why I'd like to see some defense-in-depth. If there are multiple ways to thwart that kind of concentrated power, we're not fucked if the one basket (antitrust) we were putting all our eggs into fails. I also think you may letting perfect be the enemy of the good (e.g. antitrust should already deal with this kind of thing, so it's the only thing that should deal it).
- beej71 2y ago
  What form of enforcement do you envision that is compatible with the First Amendment?
  - yodon 2y ago
    >What form of enforcement do you envision that is compatible with the First Amendment? The first step would be rolling back "corporations are people and have the rights of people." Granting corporations the rights of people turned them into a superior life form that can live forever, reproduce sexually and asexually through mergers and splits, mutate on purpose, own property, cross borders, and do all this with a tax advantage over humans. Willfully seeding the world with a superior life form was not a good idea, and today they have the lobbying budgets and first amendment rights to make sure they retain that primacy. I agree corporations need to be able to curate speech, but the first amendment is not the framework to use to justify this.
    - beej71 2y ago
      Let's step is back from corporations a bit for a moment. What's the framework to justify me erasing (for no good reason) comments people make on my personal website?