> Discoverability is pay to play. There is no townsquare not owned. And yet anyone can publish a website, like you said. Anyone can create an Instagram or TikT

> Discoverability is pay to play. There is no townsquare not owned. And yet anyone can publish a website, like you said. Anyone can create an Instagram or TikTok profile and start selling things. Millions of small businesses do this all the time and grow on these platforms without "pay to play". > So We can make on own messaging client that communicates with the gatekeepers What does this have to do with letting people create businesses? Who's going to pay you (one way or another) to use your messaging client to connect to these open services when they can use the official client or anyone else's client? I think idealists imagine a world where tech giants are forced to open their platforms for free and they can use their own apps to connect to Reddit and YouTube and other platforms while avoiding the ads. It's a pipe dream to imagine that regulators will come in and force businesses to be unprofitable for the good of the public. Platforms need to make money to exist. They can either charge admission or show ads. There isn't a third option where they're forced to become a public good so that other businesses can freely benefit from their infrastructure.