The past several years have made me aware of the vulnerability of overreliance on consolidated powers. Silicon Valley has too much influence on the world. Most of the world’s tech resides within it. The ideology of the region is vastly different than large swaths of the country. The nuance goes far beyond simply Democrats versus Republicans. California, solidly a blue state that overwhelmingly voted for Biden, voted very differently internally when it came to November’s ballots. Just a few counties away, we came to find that the rest of the state believes in fundamentally different values than the Bay Area. For example, the majority of residents within the Bay Area were in favor of Prop 16 while the rest of Californians were not. What this means is that even Democrats themselves cannot agree amongst each other on fundamental values. This should be concerning even to Democrats because one faction of their party has overt influence and control on the flow of the world’s information. This week’s events made it evidently clear that one’s presence on the web is dependent on the wills of those from a very small concentrated region. A region in which people outside struggle to even make their why into it, physically, because of prohibitive cost of living and limited housing. Are we going to live in a future in which all of those who do not bow to the Bay Area’s ideology will have the digital rug pulled under them? Hopefully not, but the point isn’t wether they will or not, but rather can they do it. We shouldn’t make ourselves so vulnerable.
Stripe bans Trump campaign
421–430 of 1001 posts
Re: Stripe bans Trump campaign
#422Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are cartel and monopoly arguments to be made that are based on maintaining an efficient free market. This is generally a bipartisan issue, but the sides are taking turns on it. Of course Stripe does not have a monopoly, but the broader discussion involves major players that can function as a cartel.
I think that Apple and Google should definitely be broken up or somehow regulated because they act as gatekeepers and there are no viable alternatives. Especially Apple where there is no way to even sideload an application. And I say this as an Apple user. But there's no guarantee what would happen even if there were five mobile platforms. In such parallel universe all five would maybe take the same action. However I…
I agree except for the case of Twitter. There may be alternative services similar to Twitter but they are not functionally the same because the broader public does not use it. I consider Twitter as a medium like phone or email that happens to be run by one company.
Re: Stripe bans Trump campaign
#423Earlier quoted context omitted.
> At this point I get the feeling that a lot of people posting here are apologists for domestic terrorism and it worries me. What a great way to shut down any discussion. Anyone who doesn’t agree must be terrorist apologists? If you read these comments and all you can see in anyone not posting full throated praises of this purge are people defending terrorists, consider taking a break from the discussion and come bac…
What else do you call it when those people arguing in support of someone who incited a mob on the Capitol?
I’d suggest the comments are actually not as much to do with Trump specifically as you seem to suspect.
Re: Stripe bans Trump campaign
#424I am curious for the people against such action by Stripe, what conditions do you think are appropriate before cutting off this kind of service to a customer? I imagine there must be some conditions that would make one say "we are enabling this individual's actions" to some definiton of "actions" that you disagree with.
Honestly? Breaking the law. Companies providing a service should not care what it is used for. If society has a problem with what people are using services for, it should pass laws, and the companies should comply with the requirements of the law. I don't know why we are allowing massive companies with unchecked power to make decisions about what is acceptable behaviour on social networks. Since when did they make th…
I spent a few minutes thinking about your reply and I can't determine whether I also share this same opinion, although it is a set of good points.
There are parts of me that feel like services like Facebook and Twitter may not fit in this model because they've almost inadvertently become modern journalistic entities, and my concerns with them are more monopolistic than their probably justified ability (given that they have become journalistic entities to some extent) to curate, regulate, and present information.
Re: Stripe bans Trump campaign
#425I was on the fence about this, but reading the comments convinced me it was the absolute right decision. The fact that all these institutions just allowed this horrible hateful speech for four years, in the name of free speech etc, despite all the harassment, harm (mental and otherwise) it caused to so many people in America actually emboldened so many to the extent that now that they crossed this invisible line, the…
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Re: Stripe bans Trump campaign
#426Re: Stripe bans Trump campaign
#427People behind all the platforms that are now banning Trump and GOP politicians presumably were aware of what was happening in the last two years. I wonder if recent events were truly the last straw for them, or did they suddenly gain the will to act after election results and are doing the right thing because it’s convenient now.
Re: Stripe bans Trump campaign
#428Earlier quoted context omitted.
Switching online payment providers isn't like moving to a new country, even a little bit.
Payment networks are where the network effects and scale are. Visa and Mastercard have been known to ban people for political reasons. Payment providers are just a front end for their networks, so it's easy to switch providers like Stripe, but you can still be banned by underlying network like Mastercard and your business will suffer.
Then perhaps there's a market opportunity for a credit card and online payment company that caters to white supremacists?
Re: Stripe bans Trump campaign
#429I encourage everyone to enable “showdead” in this thread to see which standards are being applied for flagging.
I encourage people to use Hacker News whichever way they want to. Many people respect this forum as a place for intelligent discussion. Unfounded claims that the election was stolen is not intelligent discussion. Unfounded claims that "ANTIFA" existed in any sort of widespread, organized fashion during the black lives matter protests are not intelligent discussion. Whataboutism surrounding the treatment of occasionally violent protests during BLM versus the treatment of an attempted coup lack the nuance surrounding the psychology, sociology, and power dynamics of the two situations being drastically different. That is not intelligent discussion. Unfounded claims that the insurrectionists were either ANTIFA agitators (they weren't) or were somehow peaceful as they chanted "hang Mike Pence" and searched for Nancy Pelosi with zip ties, are not intelligent discussion.
In fact, I lost a lot of respect for this community by turning on showdead. I'm not sure I'll be staying here much longer if this momentum of misinformation continues to grow.
Re: Stripe bans Trump campaign
#430Earlier quoted context omitted.
Parler bans people that post poop pics. It just so happens that mainstream services have a higher standard. But seriously, how is mounting an insurection a slippery slope? At this point I get the feeling that a lot of people posting here are apologists for domestic terrorism and it worries me. There are violent people and they think like Timothy McVeigh. That should worry you. It should worry you even more if they ca…
> At this point I get the feeling that a lot of people posting here are apologists for domestic terrorism and it worries me. What a great way to shut down any discussion. Anyone who doesn’t agree must be terrorist apologists? If you read these comments and all you can see in anyone not posting full throated praises of this purge are people defending terrorists, consider taking a break from the discussion and come bac…
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