Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Why are there no public social networks?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

1–10 of 69 posts

Ask HN: Why are there no public social networks?

#1

Post by nrvslghtnng »

(Not as in "going public".)

Why have we not seen a publicly-operated social network?

It strikes me that enabling people to connect with one another is fundamental to most governments as a public service. Cities and states make and fund roadways and public squares and parks. Social networks seem like an approximate digital parallel.

Given everything that's happened with Facebook and Twitter in the last months, why are there no examples of government-run social networks?

(Or, if there are, what are they? How do they work?)

edited the title for breadth

edit 2: thanks for sounding in! A lot of great answers. To be clear, I didn't mean to present this as a leading question. I was curious about the perceived reasons from HN's audience.

Re: Ask HN: Why are there no public social networks?

#5

Post by ajeet_dhaliwal »

It strikes me that enabling people to connect with one another is fundamental to most governments as a public service. Cities and states make and fund roadways and public squares and parks. Social networks seem like an approximate digital parallel.

The roadways, public squares and parks are under the direct control or ownership of the government, the virtual/digital parallel doesn't really exist.

Re: Ask HN: Why are there no public social networks?

#6

Post by roymurdock »

You need roads, bridges, water, electricity, and garbage collection to fulfill basic physiological needs, and also so you can swap menial tasks for higher level work/spending time with family/enjoying a better standard of living.

Framing in Maslow's pyramid [1]: Many of the goods/services the gov provides fulfill either level 1 physiological needs or level 2 security needs.

Social networks fulfill level 3 and 4 needs: love/belonging, and esteem.

We aren't yet at the point where we as a society decide we need to dedicate collective resources (taxes) to level 3 and 4 needs, especially while our level 2 and 1 services/goods aren't improving at the rate with which they did in the 20th century, and are in some cases deteriorating/being privatized.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Maslow#/media/File:Mas...

Re: Ask HN: Why are there no public social networks?

#7

Post by poisonborz »

I keep thinking about this, but no way should this be run by a government. The tech for it to be peer-to-peer, without any central authority is already there and would make the best fit. The only - admittedly huge - hurdle is that no authority means no marketing, no support, integrations, and probably a harder setup/learning curve. While an organization like EFF could help sustain some of this, it has no resources to represent or support billions of users. Of course if the network would be open, smaller businesses could capitalize on it, taking over these tasks, but this could result in walled gardens and incompatibility.

Shaking off big corporations from services that should have been always open and free-for-all is maybe the hardest and most important question of the Internet for the future. I think an answer can only rise upon the ashes of the current big players, should that be a scandal, disaster, or else.

Re: Ask HN: Why are there no public social networks?

#8

Post by amarant »

I think it's a great idea, assuming that you're from a country whose government you trust won't to spy on you. Other commenters seems not to see the potential benefit, so I'll spell it out: A government operated social network would be tax-founded, and thus not have any need for profit.

this, one could argue, enables a social network that doesn't spy on you, respects privacy and doesn't even have ads!

of course it also comes with the risk of the ruling party spying on you and engaging in manipulation. depending on where you live, and how..conspirationally inclined you are, this may or may not be a risk you're willing to take

I'm not sure that this is the best way to spend them tax-dollars. But the network itself would certainly be nice though

Post reply on HN