Consequences for Veterans and/or retirees in the 2021 DC Riots

[SlickAg]

Is Twitter/FB any different from the way that a few large companies own the majority of the traditional media sources in this country (and the world)?

I'd say there's a high likelihood of increased anti-trust cases against big tech coming. It was coming anyways but this is increased fuel to the fire.

Businesses, to generalize, are going to look to monopolize to maximize their profits. That's how the business model works. People really need to understand that businesses are there to provide them services in return for money. If they can make it such that they're the only service provider and can charge/do whatever they want all the better for them. Which is great if you're a shareholder. Less good if you're a consumer looking for low prices

It seems that every so often people realize how much of their lives are controlled by a few businesses or oligarchy-esque groups of businesses. To me, this is where the govt comes in to balance the needs of the people with those of businesses. We want a strong economy but part of a strong economy is that normal people can afford things that people are selling by ensuring competition in the field.

Bingo. I think it would be an epic legal battle and lots of factors would come into play.

Was listening to some commentary that this quote from Twitter’s team “Earlier this week, in close coordination with our peers, we suspended a number of accounts targeting the election in Uganda” is a tacit admission that they already work closely together in certain areas and it would be hard to claim that they sever themselves in other areas.

 

[sevenhelmet]

I think it is pretty awesome to see people jumping ship from WhatsApp this week over their ToS change. A large squadron alumni group of about 100 which I belong to moved to Signal yesterday. Right or wrong, FB's bad reputation is really hurting WhatsApp lately. Their damage control efforts are hilarious: "But we didn't really change anything!"

I deleted WhatsApp entirely, since that one squadron group was the only reason I used it.

 

[Griz882]

Interestingly, the same thing that killed the railroad monopolies of the late 19th Century is going to end the hold of "Big Info" at the dawn of the 21st. Railroads needed special privileges granted by the government to survive. They could condemn land (think of this as modern day removal of service from the individual "to help the many") to build their routes and then get subsidies, loans, and bonds from the government. Their political contributions and even control of railroad time tables and freight charges specifically designed to punish political enemies made things worse. By the late 1890's railroads had, and used, their business power to actually decide what businesses failed and who succeeded. The answer was surprisingly similar to what is certainly going to happen in the next few years...the government decided they owned the routes (since they initially allowed RR leaders to pick and condemn land) and could therefore set rules for private companies to operate over their lines.

Flash forward, and the rail bed has been replaced by the federal governments ownership of the broadband spectrum required by most Big Info companies to survive. It won't take too long for the government to regulate what travels over "our" broadband. I imagine that like the RR monopolies some weaker Big Info firms will fade away, Twitter being among the first. Others will shift their business model to allow for what made them profitable (mom posting pictures of her latest cake) and away from infomatics, or the attempt to manage a subjective truth.

 

[SlickAg]

The irony behind many folks highlighting European objections to the President's removal from Twitter miss the point that the many of the Euro's think it is the state that should have responsibilty for doing those actions, along with the attendant government regulation, something that wouldn't likely fly in the US politically or legally. While many European countries have pretty robust free speech restricitons almost all of them have more restrictions of speech and online regulation of speech than we have here in the US, to include the new 'Right to be Forgotten'.

I'm not sure you exactly understood my point from 10 pages, so allow me to quote myself:

I disagree with the reasoning behind her comments to which you refer; I agree with them both in the sense in that I don’t think big tech should censor the democratically elected leader of the free world. My point in sharing that article was that the Germans (and French) know a thing or two about what happens when you promote state-sponsored censorship and a de facto “thought” police controlling what people are and are not allowed to say.

Just because one agrees with the result does not mean they agree with the reasoning done to reach the result.

 

[Pags]

Bingo. I think it would be an epic legal battle and lots of factors would come into play.

Was listening to some commentary that this quote from Twitter’s team “Earlier this week, in close coordination with our peers, we suspended a number of accounts targeting the election in Uganda” is a tacit admission that they already work closely together in certain areas and it would be hard to claim that they sever themselves in other areas.

Yeah, i agree with @Griz. It will play out like a lot of the late 1890s anti-trust litigation. In the end the Government will "win" since they hold all the cards by being able to directly change the legal landscape as needed. All the tax cuts and subsidies will be shown to be govt "investment" in the systems.

 

[taxi1]

Retired Navy SEAL confessing to breaching the capitol...

Video Retired Navy SEAL boasts of 'breaching the Capitol'

A video posted to Facebook by Adam Newbold following the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol shows the former U.S. Navy SEAL on his way home from Washington, D.C.

abcnews.go.com

I don't know if he is actually retired, or just former.

 

[Flash]

I'm not sure you exactly understood my point from 10 pages, so allow me to quote myself:

Just because one agrees with the result does not mean they agree with the reasoning done to reach the result.

I wasn't including you in 'many folks', I would have quoted your post if I was.

 

[Flash]

Retired Navy SEAL confessing to breaching the capitol...

Video Retired Navy SEAL boasts of 'breaching the Capitol'

A video posted to Facebook by Adam Newbold following the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol shows the former U.S. Navy SEAL on his way home from Washington, D.C.

abcnews.go.com

I don't know if he is actually retired, or just former.

Can't fix stupid.

 

[ABMD]

I think it is pretty awesome to see people jumping ship from WhatsApp this week over their ToS change. A large squadron alumni group of about 100 which I belong to moved to Signal yesterday. Right or wrong, FB's bad reputation is really hurting WhatsApp lately. Their damage control efforts are hilarious: "But we didn't really change anything!"

I deleted WhatsApp entirely, since that one squadron group was the only reason I used it.

I'm pretty sure WhatsApp has been compromised by our Russian friends

 

[johnboyA6E]

Retired Navy SEAL confessing to breaching the capitol...

Video Retired Navy SEAL boasts of 'breaching the Capitol'

A video posted to Facebook by Adam Newbold following the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol shows the former U.S. Navy SEAL on his way home from Washington, D.C.

abcnews.go.com

I don't know if he is actually retired, or just former.

story says he served 24 years

 

[Jim123]

Interestingly, the same thing that killed the railroad monopolies of the late 19th Century is going to end the hold of "Big Info" at the dawn of the 21st.

This morning on NPR they were talking about the latest "Big Info" debate, and the thing that struck me is the person running the show and the guest speaker both seemed to be falling for the old trap that I like to call the "this time it's different" mental trap.

It's like economic bubbles like the stock market, the dot com boom, the housing bubble, various commodities over the ages, the railroad boom (speaking of railroads...).

Or as far as information goes, the comparisons I like is that Vietnam might have been the first "television war," but the relative speed and detail of the press coverage of the Crimean War and the Boer War caused a lot of controversy and division on the home front in Great Britain (before anybody called it the home front). Lots more wars to pick from that are also good examples of this principle. Or how the invention of the printing press turned society on its head by making mass communication an order of magnitude more accessible. Instead of only the royal families of Europe or the Church owning mass communication, the elites could afford it and a famous German monk was able scrounge enough to rent time on somebody else's press. A few hundred years later printed word got even more affordable- groups of revolutionaries like-minded politicians in 18th century France or The Colonies made good use of it.

Think about that when someone talks about how first the internet and now social media have made everything so much different. Yes, they have, but have they really??

Twitter/Google/FB/Amazon web services/etc. shouldn't allow bad behavior ("saying fire in a crowded theater") go unaddressed, but they ought to understand that blocking individual people, websites, or apps is a fool's errand.

 

[taxi1]

Think about that when someone talks about how first the internet and now social media have made everything so much different. Yes, they have, but have they really??

I think they have. They've flattened out the hierarchy of information flow, and made the construction of new organizations that span the entire planet instantaneous. Geography's importance has plummeted. It's a new universe (e.g., the twittersphere) to maneuver in. New "laws of physics".

 

[BigRed389]

I think they have. They've flattened out the hierarchy of information flow, and made the construction of new organizations that span the entire planet instantaneous. Geography's importance has plummeted. It's a new universe (e.g., the twittersphere) to maneuver in. New "laws of physics".

Yeah...print is the equivalent of a bunch of guys yelling on a street corner.

The Twitterverse (among others) is giving those guys a fleet of blimps with ginormous amplifiers yelling down at everybody.

 

[Griz882]

Yeah...print is the equivalent of a bunch of guys yelling on a street corner.

The Twitterverse (among others) is giving those guys a fleet of blimps with ginormous amplifiers yelling down at everybody.

Things haven't really changed. There used to be an old saying that it was never the message that mattered, just the delivery. Trump is a very good example of this...he was an awful, awful communicator. But, there is a fundamental flaw in the the old trope. It should read that "is was never the message that mattered, just the recipient."

Human beings have a spectacular capacity to consume "information" almost regardless of the speed of delivery. Thus, in 1846 when the weekly newspaper arrived the reader would announce, with some excitement, "My God, we are war with Mexico!" In 1861 a same day telegram would have amazed the recipient, "My God, we are war with South!" 1941 it was the radio, 1968 it was the TV, 1980 the internet, and today..."Big Info." The human reaction remains the same..."My God!" but the counter-action is always the same..."Oh well...best get on with..." The same can be said for motion/speed. In 1886 riding a passenger train at 40 mph was blazing fast. My little LSA flies faster than most WWI fighters. Even the fastest WWII piston fighter couldn't outpace a simple RJ type airliner today. When we first learn to drive (or fly), we are often stunned or overwhelmed by the speed but before too long we are driving at 80mph or flying close to Mach. Humans simply adapt.

Since we can only live in our time we assume (and we are always wrong) that "this time" it is different. It isn't. Just as quickly as humans absorb information they shake it off. Well, most of us. And this is where we are and have been countless times in history. Those who internalize information without substantive analysis over time are a minority but they tend to drive the "My God!" moments before they turn into "Oh well..." times.

"Big Info" isn't different, it is just the next thing we will soon be underwhelmed by.

 

[Flash]

Twitter/Google/FB/Amazon web services/etc. shouldn't allow bad behavior ("saying fire in a crowded theater") go unaddressed, but they ought to understand that blocking individual people, websites, or apps is a fool's errand.

In the President's case I am not so sure, as Twitter was his one of his primary methods of communicating and now that avenue is closed to him. Will many of his most devoted followers follow him to whatever platform he chooses to park? Sure, but his 'bullhorn' will be much diminished and so will likely whatever power he yields when he leaves office next week.