Quote: (09-11-2018 03:00 AM)SeaFM Wrote:
For the “private company can do what it wants” crowd, please clarify this fine point for me.
Amazon, Twitter, Facebook, Google, YouTube, etcetera may be private companies, though they are traded publicly, and they answer to shareholders and advertisers primarily, but the guts of every single platform is the Internet, and the Internet was created by the US government, so HOW is a company that is reliant on a government network not bound by the constitution of the United States?
Isn’t that more or less like declaring your backyard as Petoria?
They are all platforms built on Government infrastructure. They are basically spy agencies by proxy on top of that. They are the government. The “private company can do what it wants” argument is a cop out. It’s ok for big tech giants to disregard the 1st amendment, but it’s not ok for the NFL to prohibit players from kneeling due to the 1st amendment, or for a cake shop to refuse to bake gay wedding cakes?
It can’t go both ways.
The big internet companies are creating natural monopolies by the sheer way the market is structured.
They are similar to the one supermarket in a small town or the power utility company.
No other shop can open in a small town, because they would never become viable, thus they create a natural monopoly.
Twitter used even the term "public space" during the congressional hearing. That is quite telling, because they know that they are THE MAIN PUBLIC PLATFORM. They are akin to the government wanting to prevent you from entering a public park, because you voted for Trump.
You have to understand that natural monopolies exist and they need to be reigned in and controlled. That is why back even 150 years ago when Jim Crow and racial separation was rampant, they created a law that prohibited even the most ardent "Whites Only" remote establishments from preventing black people to come inside and take a rest. The reason was because travel back then was perilous, you could actually freeze to death or die of pneumonia as you were forced to stand outside in the cold or rain - while the natural monopoly of a remote way station just made it not viable to get another one up and running for blacks. So the government made a law forcing everyone to allow entry for every race.
Something similar should be done, but won't be done of course because Big Gov is happy with the censorship.
The Slavery of Thought has barely begun.