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Regulate the Internet like the real world or the real world like the Internet?

nickgrossman.is

1–10 of 22 posts

Re: Regulate the Internet like the real world or the real world like the Internet?

#5
In every discussion like this I've ever read on HN, the implicit assumption is: all the companies who take advantage of the new regulatory system will be like Uber.

Why is that a valid assumption? The Internet is full of sleazy companies utterly undeserving of anyone's trust.

Re: Regulate the Internet like the real world or the real world like the Internet?

#6
post #5

In every discussion like this I've ever read on HN, the implicit assumption is: all the companies who take advantage of the new regulatory system will be like Uber. Why is that a valid assumption? The Internet is full of sleazy companies utterly undeserving of anyone's trust.

Perhaps it's not a valid assumption - but does it matter? A large chunk of the point of the 2.0 regulation model (the graphic in the OP) is that over time reputation is crowd-sourced. Can we not just live with the existence of sleazy companies in the knowledge that over time they'll be weaned out?

Re: Regulate the Internet like the real world or the real world like the Internet?

#7
post #5

In every discussion like this I've ever read on HN, the implicit assumption is: all the companies who take advantage of the new regulatory system will be like Uber. Why is that a valid assumption? The Internet is full of sleazy companies utterly undeserving of anyone's trust.

And in the world of real interactions (like the Uber and AirBnb domains), it quickly becomes obvious that they are sleazy unaccountable companies, and they die, faster than regulators could even send cease & desist faxes.

Where the stakes matter, community self-protection can now ramp up faster, make fairer distinctions, and preserve flexibility better than (often-incumbent-captured) regulatory agencies.

Re: Regulate the Internet like the real world or the real world like the Internet?

#9
post #5

In every discussion like this I've ever read on HN, the implicit assumption is: all the companies who take advantage of the new regulatory system will be like Uber. Why is that a valid assumption? The Internet is full of sleazy companies utterly undeserving of anyone's trust.

How does that differ from the norms of non-internet companies?

Re: Regulate the Internet like the real world or the real world like the Internet?

#10
post #5

In every discussion like this I've ever read on HN, the implicit assumption is: all the companies who take advantage of the new regulatory system will be like Uber. Why is that a valid assumption? The Internet is full of sleazy companies utterly undeserving of anyone's trust.

No, that's not the assumption at all.

The assumption is that any business that's not deserving of trust is very easy to detect and kill in the internet era, solely through the distributed actions of consumers with good access to information.

And this distributed form of regulation is significantly less corruptible than centralized, political regulation.

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