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1525 points garyclarke27 | 2 comments | | HN request time: 0.409s | source
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heinrichhartman ◴[] No.23221288[source]
This is the result of out-sourcing juristic work to private companies:

If we treat Android, Window, Twitter, Facebook, as public spaces/goods, then private companies should not have a say in what is allowed/not-allowed on their platforms. This is work for the courts and police to decide and enforce.

If we treat those platforms as private. Then we are playing in s/o's backyard. You are totally at their mercy. They have every right to kick you out if they don't like your face. It's their property. You are a guest.

I think we need constituted digital public spaces and platforms with:

- democratic footing (users are in charge)

- public ownership

- division of power (politicians =!= judges =!= police)

- effective policing

In such a system it would be for independent courts to decide which Apps can be distributed and which not. Those courts would be bound to a constitution/body of law, which applies to all parties a like.

Yes, this will be expensive. Yes, you will have to give up some privacy. But you will be a citizen in a society, and not a stranger playing in a backyard.

Maybe the current platforms can be coerced into a system which approximates the above. But I have my doubts. I hope in 200years people will have figured this out, and will look back to this age as the digital dark ages.

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nelaboras ◴[] No.23221897[source]
The problem is that they have to act across borders.

Examples:

In the EU you don't need to filter pornography the same way as in the US. In the US you don't need to filter personal information (eg individuals' faces) the same way as in the EU.

Or does Google need to ban insults of the Thai king?

Which legislation should apply? Already now China has split the global internet in a China and non-China part...

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acituan ◴[] No.23225343[source]
> they have to act across borders.

They don’t have to, they choose to, in the name of growth.

If New York Times decided to operate in China too, deliver news in chinese about China, they would have the same problem.

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makomk ◴[] No.23229020[source]
What? The New York Times does deliver news in Chinese about China. Has done for quite a while.
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1. acituan ◴[] No.23229098[source]
Didn’t know that, thanks for chiming in. My point stands though.
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2. randallsquared ◴[] No.23234148[source]
Does it? Are you just assuming that, or did you find evidence of it?