He's definitely also talking about having control over your own content, which seems to be a big issue with huge sites, such as Facebook or YouTube.

> Hosting your own content means you have control over it and the reader’s attention. By writing, you are creating value so harness it instead of giving it away for free.

Not to mention that by hosting yourself, you're not subject to "changing at our discretion" terms of service.

Maybe there's space for a "shadow-HN" which just mirrors current HN links but through google's caches...