Live data from Hacker News

Former officials say big tech monopoly power is vital to national security

greenwald.substack.com

41–50 of 235 posts

Re: Former officials say big tech monopoly power is vital to national security

#41
Suppression of liberty and free speech is against the founding ethos of America. Should we abandon that ethos, we have abandoned the very idea of America.

--

"Better to die on your feet than live on your knees."

~ Emiliano Zapata

--

"Live Free or Die"

~ U.S. state of New Hampshire

--

"Give me liberty or give me death!"

~ Patrick Henry

--

“Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

~ Benjamin Franklin

--

"True patriotism hates injustice in its own land more than anywhere else."

~ Clarence Darrow

Re: Former officials say big tech monopoly power is vital to national security

#42

It's such a financially convenient line of thinking. It's absolute nonsense. Both at face value and once you dig into it. Mainstream media is feeding us constant lies which work against our interests, destroy our ability to trust institutions and the government. Big Tech is clearly the biggest threat to our democracy. Before Big Tech, we did not have such problems. This new narrative is pure self-serving propaganda,…

Before big tech, there wasn't a race to the bottom for eyeballs and journalism was well funded enough to provide quality reporting.

I agree. There were always of course "tabloids" but we all knew what they were and we knew wrasslin' was fake.

Re: Former officials say big tech monopoly power is vital to national security

#43

It's such a financially convenient line of thinking. It's absolute nonsense. Both at face value and once you dig into it. Mainstream media is feeding us constant lies which work against our interests, destroy our ability to trust institutions and the government. Big Tech is clearly the biggest threat to our democracy. Before Big Tech, we did not have such problems. This new narrative is pure self-serving propaganda,…

> Mainstream media is feeding us constant lies...

No one reporting that apparently.

I agree with some of your points but accusations like that without any room for nuance do not resonate with me.

> The problem with the US and the west is not freedom of speech or the free market, it's our debt-based monetary system which is now based on soft money.

And I've seen convincing arguments claiming the exact opposite: that debt has allowed large enterprises, investments that have gone on to create untold capital. I'm still on the fence.

> The decline started in 1971…

I have seen the "WTF Happened in 1971?" web site.

Re: Former officials say big tech monopoly power is vital to national security

#44
I'm sure if it was on the table, intelligence and national security officials would issue a jointly signed letter that implementing a "Great Firewall" in America is necessary for national security.

Luckily, these people don't get a say in what congress does. I will continue to vote for legislators who advocate busting tech monopolies.

Re: Former officials say big tech monopoly power is vital to national security

#45

On april 17th I made the prediction that the US government was in control of twitter for probably this reason. I got flagged for this. A day later a bunch of former intelligence people basically said this is a good idea. That's funny to me.

Former intelligence people churn out all sorts of goofy takes in an attempt to build their brand. They’re also all over the spectrum depending on what audience they’re chasing. Not that much difference than any other media influencer or substack author.

It's ultimately a free speech issue. You can't demand people to self-censor because their previous employment places unjustified credibility their nonsensical views. The way to combat this is through better civic and media literacy.

Re: Former officials say big tech monopoly power is vital to national security

#46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What moral high ground do we hold now? Vast amounts of ground, fortunately. How about the fact that we can have these conversations fully uncensored? That little thing known as freedom of speech, which is still overwhelmingly alive and well. I enjoy its use, aggressively, on a daily basis without persecution and have for decades uninterrupted.

Except that freedom of speech does not protect us from intolerance, as Karl Popper observed. For example, private entities are not required to uphold freedom of speech.

It's funny when Popper is brought up in this way because his conclusion was that the only reasonable censorship of intolerance was that which poses a threat of immediate physical harm. So basically how the US treats freedom of speech today.

He certainly wouldn't be supportive of censoring racist commentary that didn't incite immediate physical violence.

Re: Former officials say big tech monopoly power is vital to national security

#47

On april 17th I made the prediction that the US government was in control of twitter for probably this reason. I got flagged for this. A day later a bunch of former intelligence people basically said this is a good idea. That's funny to me.

From your comment, you went unnecessarily political regarding the January 6, 2021 insurrection. In my view, this is why people downvoted your comment. The common narrative is that it was insurrection. It was certainly a dangerous mob driven by Trump and cronies intending to interfere with the US election proceedings without justifiable cause beyond pseudo-creedal feelings that somewhere, somehow, the election was stolen.

Re: Former officials say big tech monopoly power is vital to national security

#48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>What is this talk about “the algorithm,” as in Musk saying “they should open source the algorithm.” Is this the traffic boosting and suppression mechanism? If for example you make a post that says "Vaccines cause autism". They dont have enough humans to moderate this. They write an algorithm that generally sees that and you get shadowbanned or equivalent. What are all the subjects in which you may not talk about on…

It's not biased to moderate something like "vaccines cause autism". It's been legally and scientifically established as outright misinformation. The genesis of that theory was a disgraced researcher who pushed fraudulent claims with misrepresented data. The paper was retracted for "scientific misconduct". And yet now moderating false claims that have a detrimental effect on public health outcomes is seen as a "leftis…

>It's not biased to moderate something like "vaccines cause autism".

I surrender. I agree, we absolutely should be doing something. The point elon is planning with the open sourcing is to simply make it public. I figure most political folks wont really argue over the autism thing.

>It's been legally and scientifically established as outright misinformation. The genesis of that theory was a disgraced researcher who pushed fraudulent claims with misrepresented data. The paper was retracted for "scientific misconduct".

Here is the interesting thing. Do we fix the conversation by banning people from talking about it?

When you tear out a man's tongue, you are not proving him a liar, you're only telling the world that you fear what he might say. -George R. R. Martin

Or would it be better to allow people to talk about it and just post a warning that it's discredited and link?

>And yet now moderating false claims that have a detrimental effect on public health outcomes is seen as a "leftist government conspiracy".

I chose vaccines cause autism because it's a great example of something that is harmful to society. Something that might be worth censoring but when you block or even secretly shadowban this subject. It even makes me want to know more. Sure looks like conspiracy to me.

But I also kind of point to NYTimes and incoming CNN ceo who are telling their journalists to break out of their twitter echo chambers.

twitter censors far more than this subject. The anticonservative bias that twitter creates also ends up forming echo chambers for the left. Who then dont see criticism of their work. The consequence that NYTimes for example sees is that they stop reporting properly, they report on their echo chamber. They then fundamentally break journalism ethics rules.

Re: Former officials say big tech monopoly power is vital to national security

#49
post #7

James Clapper is a signatory? The man who perjured himself in front of congress? I think not. https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2018/01/19/james-clap...

I don't put much faith in things Turley writes. He went off the deep end a long time ago and went into crazy town. Marc Elias has, correctly IMO, labeled him as "the pillow guy, but with tenure."

Re: Former officials say big tech monopoly power is vital to national security

#50
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Times are tough after your golden goose dies. Which golden goose has died or is going to? Tech profits are through the roof and have never been better, while growth continues unabated. The only thing big tech is facing are speeding fines and regional constraints on growth , which it can trivially afford (it has been a decade of the same talk while big tech has gotten massively bigger). Operating income: Apple $117…

I’m talking about Greenwald and Snowden.

Did you have a rationale argument against the points he raises? Or just trying to smear him?
Post reply on HN