Re:Facebook is rating the trustworthiness of its users on a ...
by bogomipz on Tuesday August 21, 2018 @09:40PM
(#17815546)
>"As regards FB, is it a utility or a medium?"
I'm assuming this is the question of are they a publisher or a platform? They seem to want to be both depending on the context and who is asking:
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jul/02/facebook-...
As regards FB, is it a utility or a medium? If it is a medium then they exercise editorial control over the content on their platform and are liable for said content; if it is a utility then they should not censor any content (which they totally do – be it timeline manipulation or shadow-banning or deplatforming). Tech companies want it every which way – they want to behave like a utility but also censor (and monetize) content. Whatever they (FB, Twitter, YouTube, et. al.) are, they're leading an ad-fueled muddled existence. I really think we need anti-trust legislation to chop them into pieces and reboot with some much needed global competition. What we need is effectively an ITU‡ (which was founded in 1865 btw) for the 21st century.
‡ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Telecommunicatio...