[ExI] Section 230 and Antitrust

[Stathis Papaioannou]

On Sun, 17 Jan 2021 at 08:23, Stuart LaForge via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

>
> As many of the long time list members know, I am a very vocal opponent
> of racism and intolerance. I truly do believe that genetic and
> cultural diversity is a very important hedge against extinction and
> gives tremendous competitive advantages to diverse open societies. But
> I am also a huge proponent of the U.S. Constitution and the principles
> of individual liberty on which it was founded. That is why I have to
> weigh in on the events of the past two weeks.
>
> While I decry the storming of Capitol by Q-Anon and alt-right
> extremists in an attempted coup, and I support the investigation and
> arrest of those who were responsible, I am very much against the
> unilateral attack on free speech by big tech. I was horrified to learn
> that 3 rich guys could decide to almost instantaneously destroy a
> promising young social media startup with over 30 employees and 10
> million users at the touch of a button.
>
> I was reminded of Obi Wan's line from Star Wars regarding the
> destruction of Alderaan by the Death Star: "I felt a great disturbance
> in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror
> and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened."
> It should terrorize anybody who has ever felt the slightest stir of
> the American Dream to grow a small business into a successful company,
> that Amazon could pull the plug on a small business so easily.
>
> So why are not the Feds investigating this? Is that not collusion by a
> cartel to monopolize an entire sector of a market that SHOULD be free?
> By the letter of the law of Section 230 of the Communications Decency
> Act, Parler did nothing wrong and cannot be held liable for the
> content generated by its users. Who gave a small cadre of billionaires
> the right to decide what constitutes acceptable speech on their own
> platforms AND everyone else's?
>

Since they are private companies, they can do anything they want unless
there is a law preventing them.

-- 
Stathis Papaioannou

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