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A comment on China holds drill to shut down 'harmful' websites. Parent comment

Re:China holds drill to shut down 'harmful' websites by Mindless2112 on Friday August 04, 2017 @01:50PM (#14930509)
In the US, if you don't like some company's content policies, you can, with a bit of effort, start your own company. (Whether it can generate revenue enough to support itself is a separate problem.)

In China, if you don't like the government's policies, you can try starting your own government. Good luck.

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Re:China holds drill to shut down 'harmful' websites by vetinari on Friday August 04, 2017 @01:58PM (#14930560)
Starting your own youtube/facebook-like platform with all it's network effects is similar to starting your own government.
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Re:China holds drill to shut down 'harmful' websites by livingparadox on Friday August 04, 2017 @05:12PM (#14932322)
Youtube/facebook won't throw you in jail for creating a competitor. The government will usually take exception to you trying to start your own government on their land.
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Re:China holds drill to shut down 'harmful' websites by am1988 on Friday August 04, 2017 @06:07PM (#14932757)
In the US if you don't like your internet provider you can shut up and keep paying because the government helped them get a localized monopoly. Google can swing regulators from "anti-trust" to "it's all good they said they would fix it". Lobbyists write legislation.

The level of corporate control in the US is disturbingly high. Ultimately they are weaker than the federal government.

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