Since these companies have no real competition and stand astride the information superhighway should they be regulated as utilities ? I would not have thought so in the past but they are now acting as political gatekeepers and trying to censor conservatives. I'm not sure what the solution is. Any better ideas ?

When has more .gov regulation (and bigger government) ever helped us?

If they are your gatekeeper you're standing at the wrong gate.
I don't use any of those services and stay well informed.
If they are such important gatekeepers, how did Trump pull it off? They were all pulling for Hillbag.

Any way you cut it, Trump is a master at using them. He just bypasses the msm and goes straight to the masses.

They have no monopoly on anything, they just happen to be the biggest at the moment in their respective fields.

Let the free market handle it. If they overreach, they'll go by the wayside just like MySpace and so many others have.

Any way you cut it, Trump is a master at using them. He just bypasses the msm and goes straight to the masses.[/quote]
Yes he is a master and has used them successfully but what happens when twitter or facebook ban Trump to silence political speech they don't like ? Personally I don't have an account with either company but millions of Americans do get almost all their information from facebook and google. Those millions also vote. To control information is to control the people.

That's not how this works. That's not how any of this works.




Dave

Have you ever considered making an account so your voice can counter the opposition?



Dave

So Trump forms a team to write an app that sends you notifications to your phone when he writes something in the app/message board.

Then Google and Apple ban his app from the stores... then what? Well there's always www.donaldjtrump.com to get the message out.

I know a guy that could write this app before everyone goes to bed tonight, test it, and submit it to the stores for release tomorrow (OK Apple is probably going to take 3 days to approve it and Google don't GAF what you publish so it'll be available by midnight).

Like the OP, not keen on the left liberal leaning of many internet companies. However, agree with above, don't think more government regulation is the answer. Just look at how well the IRS behaved 'regulating' conservative tax payers...

What can go wrong ?

You mention three different companies in the space, then contend "there's no competition". Unless you have evidence of collusion, you premise is disproven in it's very presentation.

We need more regulations

Twitter is heavily censoring its content by suspending the accounts of people who exercise freedom of speech. Google is shaping their words search engine so that its results reflects the left's agenda. Microsoft, Apple, and Yahoo are all in on the plan to shape the narrative,...even Wikipedia is part of it.

Alternatives to all of them are in the works.

I threw all concern for my "friendships" to the wind and posted political stuff on Facebook every day during the campaign. (I was working more on making Hillary unpalatable than promoting Trump.) A noticeable portion of what I posted vanished into thin air.

Not like this is a new analogy, but Winston Smith's job in the Ministry of Truth was to rewrite historical documents to match the current party line.

What's fun about human nature is that even if you point out that the path to tyranny is clearly labeled with flashing lights and warning sirens, people will still take it...

Start a new company that provides an alternative. MAGA baby, MAGA.

Why are so many so afraid of so much?

Bristoe, I hope there are viable alternatives soon !

you mean like linkedIn, snapchat and instagram?