So Apple censoring is the same as a mall refusing you to hold a protest there, which happens all the time.
1. The tech giants use their influence to get enough Democrats elected in 2018 to keep crushing any political dissent on their platforms that reaches any kind of popularity. They are ostensibly pursuing this course today, and it's a little frightening. 2. Republicans keep the house and/or Senate, and Regulation or Anti-Trust suits ramp up since half the country has no voice online anymore. 3. SV returns to the first amendment, does a 180 degree turn, and only purges illegal speech like libel, slander, threats, etc.
This is a truth. The current laws haven't done a good job at modernising and adapting to the influence these tech giants have and how they operate.
> and are all extremely left-leaning
Here's the question worth considering: Are they extremely/abnormally left leaning, or is the world getting more left leaning? What makes them left leaning? Because they advocate for general social issues like treating humans as equals and with dignity and respect?
Banning Infowars isnt banning conservative views - its banning abhorrent hate speech. Calling Sandy Hook "completely fake" and "manufactured" and saying that the kids from Stoneman Douglas High School are crisis actors isn't "right wing" or conservative.
I see the world of information like an immune system. If your system is active and repelling threats, it gets stronger. If you are never allowed to see actual threats, your system atrophies and you become the intellectual equivalent of a native American when a European colonialist shows up at your door. Bad ideas from your own side will come some day, and if your big brother has been suppressing dissent enough, you'll accept those bad ideas like a lemming off a cliff.
A: None.
- Apple is a private entity.
- Verizon (and all other ISPs) is/are a private entity.
- Telecom equipment and communication hubs are private entities.
If they wish, they can make you a non-existent entity (on the Web). We have two options:
- regulate some companies as utilities
- build a public network (just like the roads).
Of course, I don't see such an opinion being particularly welcomed here.
A chunk of the basic infrastructure of the internet is free just out of sheer luck (good willed inventors and founders).
