Trump's Social Media Executive Order

[Belz...]

I don't know a good term for it. Social Media is the catch-all term for these things but the reason I call them effective monopolies is that you can't just "create your own" and expect it to have anywhere near the same reach as those. This is before even considering possible issues of collusion.

Yeah but my point is that there are SO many alternatives if you want to talk with people online, whether it be friends, coworkers or complete strangers, that I can't call any of them a monopoly.

 

[BobTheCoward]

Yeah but my point is that there are SO many alternatives if you want to talk with people online, whether it be friends, coworkers or complete strangers, that I can't call any of them a monopoly.

Plus it competes with talking offline.

 

[p0lka]

Plus it competes with talking offline.

Do you mean turning things off?
Christ that would be anathema to a vast chunk of people.

 

[smartcooky]

I don't know a good term for it. Social Media is the catch-all term for these things but the reason I call them effective monopolies is that you can't just "create your own" and expect it to have anywhere near the same reach as those. This is before even considering possible issues of collusion.

Once upon a time, Facebook didn't exist.

Once upon a time, Twitter didn't exist.

Once upon a time, Instagram didn't exist.

Just because things are big and powerful now, or seem to dominate everything now, does not mean they are forever - MySpace, Altavista, AskJeeves...... the Roman Empire!

 

[Suddenly]

Actually, Twitter is not so much like the Town Hall meeting as it is the Town Hall itself - and the owners/managers of that Town Hall can deny anyone to use their facilities.

Basically that. The lack of defined physical space makes it weird and the "town hall" analogy is about what Trump is doing, not twitter. If a town rented a privately owned space to hold a public meeting about official business they couldn't ban people they didn't like, but that doesn't mean the owners of that private space have to rent to the town if they didn't care to.

Trump can't block people because he's using twitter for governmental purposes.

Twitter could up and ban Trump tomorrow just because if they felt like it.

They won't do that because it would be beyond disruptive to their business model.

 

[I Am The Scum]

Basically that. The lack of defined physical space makes it weird and the "town hall" analogy is about what Trump is doing, not twitter. If a town rented a privately owned space to hold a public meeting about official business they couldn't ban people they didn't like, but that doesn't mean the owners of that private space have to rent to the town if they didn't care to.

This is a much more efficient way of stating the point I was trying to make.