Any student of history can explain that America has had this debate many times for almost all new technologies that grow dominant. The railroads spurred heavy regulation because they didn't treat all customers the same. The trucking industry too. When companies become large enough, citizens get upset when they're not treated equally and they start complaining to lawmakers who often do something.
Facebook and Google Are Not Public Utilities
21–30 of 58 posts
Re: Facebook and Google Are Not Public Utilities
#22It's weird that there's so much talk about Google and Facebook being public utilities and no talk about ISPs, which obviously are public utilities and treat their customers like crap. I think Big Tech needs to shake up their lobbying division.
* Among those who understand internetworking, there has been debate about ISPs as utilities for a long time. * ISPs present a cost and performance problem for most Americans, whereas social media giants present fundamental issues of society and speech. It's easier to see there is a problem, while also being harder to figure out.
Net neutrality doesn't exist so ISPs can decide to arbitrarily block access to social media giants, or any other site, altogether. That is the bigger problem. Anyone going after Google and Facebook but not ISPs has an agenda.
Re: Facebook and Google Are Not Public Utilities
#23As an aside, I'm really beginning to dislike titles for articles that have that dismissive tone of "This is my fact and I'm going to tell it to you". I know the reason they have to do this is that having a reasonable title won't get any clicks, but perhaps that's a sign I should just be disregarding places that are only looking for clicks in the first place. I think I'm going to mostly focus on smaller creators, sing…
More like 15 tweets in length
Re: Facebook and Google Are Not Public Utilities
#24It's weird that there's so much talk about Google and Facebook being public utilities and no talk about ISPs, which obviously are public utilities and treat their customers like crap. I think Big Tech needs to shake up their lobbying division.
There is nothing that says public utilities can't treat their customers like crap...
True, but it make it easier to regulate things like price hikes.
Re: Facebook and Google Are Not Public Utilities
#25It's weird that there's so much talk about Google and Facebook being public utilities and no talk about ISPs, which obviously are public utilities and treat their customers like crap. I think Big Tech needs to shake up their lobbying division.
> no talk about ISPs
What? The article literally mentions that:
> Because ISPs are mere conduits for data, it makes sense to prevent them from treating data differently depending on its source or content.
Re: Facebook and Google Are Not Public Utilities
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
* Among those who understand internetworking, there has been debate about ISPs as utilities for a long time. * ISPs present a cost and performance problem for most Americans, whereas social media giants present fundamental issues of society and speech. It's easier to see there is a problem, while also being harder to figure out.
Net neutrality doesn't exist so ISPs can decide to arbitrarily block access to social media giants, or any other site, altogether. That is the bigger problem. Anyone going after Google and Facebook but not ISPs has an agenda.
That's a non-issue in reality, as they haven't done that yet. When was the last time hate sites, or social media sites, or any sites, were blacklisted en masse by any public ISP in the US recently?
Don't get me wrong: I support net neutrality and greater regulation of ISPs. I believe the attacks on municipal service is wrong. And I believe the danger of ISP censorship is real - in theory.
I also wonder what, if anything, should be done to combat the virus that is misinformation on the social media giants.
Re: Facebook and Google Are Not Public Utilities
#27It's weird that there's so much talk about Google and Facebook being public utilities and no talk about ISPs, which obviously are public utilities and treat their customers like crap. I think Big Tech needs to shake up their lobbying division.
There is nothing that says public utilities can't treat their customers like crap...
In fact I'm pretty sure it's in the job description.
Re: Facebook and Google Are Not Public Utilities
#28It's weird that there's so much talk about Google and Facebook being public utilities and no talk about ISPs, which obviously are public utilities and treat their customers like crap. I think Big Tech needs to shake up their lobbying division.
The media doesn't feel threatened by ISPs, so we don't get negative articles about ISPs. But big tech _is_ a huge threat to traditional media.
> traditional media
Moss media. Spread the meme.
Re: Facebook and Google Are Not Public Utilities
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
The media doesn't feel threatened by ISPs, so we don't get negative articles about ISPs. But big tech _is_ a huge threat to traditional media.
Seems like it's easier for local governments to set up their own public broadband services than their own competing big tech companies. And there's been plenty coverage of the fight for public broadband and the pushback from monopolistic ISPs.
The problem is local governments are not competent enough to do so...and even if they figure out how to do so it's at a large multiplier of the cost of any major ISP.
https://municipalbroadbandpdx.org/home
There is a link to getting local broadband in Portland...it's a total mess and waste of money.
Re: Facebook and Google Are Not Public Utilities
#30Any student of history can explain that America has had this debate many times for almost all new technologies that grow dominant. The railroads spurred heavy regulation because they didn't treat all customers the same. The trucking industry too. When companies become large enough, citizens get upset when they're not treated equally and they start complaining to lawmakers who often do something.
Well, more precisely: Lawmakers will do absolutely nothing until a combination of a sufficient number of organized voters and pissed off businesses being discriminated against decide that lawmakers need to do something or be replaced by those who will... then, quite suddenly, government becomes very efficient. Amazing how that works.